The past always comes back
by Sapphos-Daughter
Summary: Seto Kaiba is learning that you can't run away from your past and that he isn't the only one who has a claim on Mokuba's heart. Rated M for later chapters. Pairings: SetoXOC teaXyugi DukeXserenityXTristan MaiXJoey Chapter 7 now split into two chapters!
1. Dreams & Deals

Author's note: This is my 1st yu-gi-oh fanfic. Tamara, Jake, Drake, and the plot, are all I own. The rest belongs to the original creators. I might mix some aspects of Yu-Gi-Oh GX in this fic as well, pleasereview and let me hear what you think.

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It was that dream again. 

The nightmare from his past.

One thing that he couldn't forget or escape.

_"Greetings Drake. I haven't seen you in a while. It's not often that you come to these gatherings. Is everything all right with Fear corporation?" Gozaburo Kaibia greeted the tall severe looking man he was shaking hands with._

_"Yes, yes, everything is going well. Actually, I was hoping to run into you. Have you met my son Jake?" Drake asked, causing a boy to come forward._

_Eight year old Seto Kaibia looked at Jake with detached interest, beside him, a five year old Mokuba grinned a silent hello._

_Jake's emerald eyes were dark with a kind of muted solemn respect as he greeted them. "It is an honor to meet you all. Father, I need to find Tamara. May I please be excused?"_

_"Jake, I told you before that if you insisted on dragging that girl along tonight that you would have to keep an eye on her." Drake reprimanded his son firmly._

_"I know father, I'm sorry, I thought she was right behind me."_

_"All right go ahead, but stay out of the way once you find her." Drake agreed._

_"Seto, take your brother and go with Jake while his father and I discuss some business."_

_"Yes sir." Seto replied "Come on Mokuba." Knowing that Mokuba would follow behind him, Seto fell in step slightly behind Jake, waiting until they were out of earshot before speaking. "Who's Tamara?"_

_Jake gave him a long look before answering. "My twin sister."_

_Seto looked surprised but Mokuba beat him to it. _

_"Really, you have a twin? That's cool. Do we get to met her?"_

_"You will if I can find her… where in the world did she go?" Muttering to himself, Jake's eyes scanned the crowd before whistling a tune._

_After a few minutes, another whistle sounded in answer. Smiling, Jake turned in the direction of the signal's return and walked quickly towards it._

_All Seto could see as he walked was a little girl in a red and black power wheelchair. Their eyes met and--_

Seto Kaibia sat bolt upright amid the sweat soaked sheets, breathing hard. Why in the hell did he keep having that dream? Getting up, he strode to the shower and hit the cold water full blast, not caring his clothes were getting soaked.

What was he thinking? He knew exactly why he kept repeating that dream. Growling, he cursed Gozaburo Kaibia in every possible way he could think of as he stripped and bathed himself in the near frigid water before getting dressed for the day. Seto was brewing himself into a truly dark humor and he knew it

Gozaburo Kaibia had been an ambitious man, he had taught his stepson all he knew by whatever ways he had deemed necessary. Under his command, Kaibia Corporation had slowly grown into the foundation of the empire that Seto had rebuilt in his own image. Yet he wanted more. Drake Fear had been the closest thing to a friend that his stepfather Gozaburo would ever allow himself to have, yet they were still rivals when it came to the business world.

The one thing that his stepfather had wanted the most in his lifetime was the company that Drake had owned added to his own.

He had even been willing to treat his oldest stepson as chattel if it would bring that goal within his iron grasp. Seto swallowed the bitter taste that had found it's way into his mouth.

Arranged marriage… this was the only polite thing that could be said regarding the price that had been agreed upon. The Kaibia brothers weren't the only ones who hadn't been happy with this. Even if he hadn't really liked the girl, he had still been hurt by the stark fear that the girl had shown when they had been told what had been decided. No, it wasn't just the fear that had hurt the young Seto Kaibia, it had been the look of absolute horror and pain that had briefly touched her face when they had been told about the decision that had been made by their elders about the future of the children.

Not long after this, Drake Fear had moved his family to the USA out of business reasons. Seto had been pretty indifferent, but Mokuba had been devastated by this. The reason for this being that he was lonely since Seto was always so busy and that there were some interests that the brothers did not share. Tamara swore that they would always be able to keep in touch.

Hearing Mokuba's excited footsteps in the hallway, Seto couldn't help but smile. Whatever Tamara's feelings had been about the elder brother, Seto wouldn't (and, if he was honest with himself, simply couldn't) deny that the girl adored his little brother. Even after the bomb had been dropped, she had kept her word, as both of the younger siblings kept in close contact with each other though letters and computer access. Sometimes Mokuba would share these with his brother, but more often he would keep them to himself as a kind of private treasure. Seto didn't mind this, since it gave his brother a kind of companionship while he was busy with work and trying to beat Yugi in duel monsters.

A knock on the door jerked his mind back to the present. "Come in!" he called.

Mokuba burst into the room like a miniature tornado, still dressed in the rumpled pajamas he had worn to bed the night before and his wild raven black hair more crazy than normal. Violet eyes blazing with a seemingly unholy joy, he shoved a thick envelope into his brother's hands while grinning like a maniac.

"They're coming back! Unicorn and Jake are coming back home!" Mokuba laughed as he spun around in joy.

"Unicorn?" Seto questioned his brother with a raised eyebrow.

"Our pet name for her, Yugi and his gang thought of it." Mokuba answered with a laugh. "It makes her blush, we keep using it." Then Mokuba looked at the alarm clock. "Yikes, I gotta go! Yugi and the others are going to want to know that they're coming, and I'm going to be late for school to boot! See ya bro!"

A half hour later, Seto discovered that he had somehow stuck the letter that Mokuba had shoved at him in his pocket. He bit his lip, wondering if he wanted to open it or not…

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A/N: The evil Cliffhanger! hahaha! Will he open the envelope? Review please and you might see! 


	2. What you don't know can hurt you

Author's note: thanks to the ones who have reviewed and I hope that you'll like this chapter as well!

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Seto glared at the letter resting innocently on the desk in his office. It wasn't like him to be tempted like this. He should have just left the damn thing in Mokuba's room. What was that old saying? Oh yes, 'curiosity killed the cat'. Still, it had been a while since he had heard anything about his so-called-promised-bride, and it would be interesting to see exactly what she was writing him about…

He snorted, who was he trying to kid? All he wanted to do was see why Mokuba liked this girl so much.

Thoroughly disgusted with himself, he picked up the letter and jerked it out of the much abused envelope. 'Mokuba must have been in a real hurry to open this thing.' he noted as he opened the letter and began to read:

_Dearest little brother,_

_Hopefully this letter will reach you with all possible speed, though I would still like to know what you did to your brother's computer that made him mad enough to ban your internet access! If not, I sent the rest of our group e-mails just in case. I wish with all my heart and soul that this letter contained better news, but since it does not I will come directly to the point:_

_My mother is dead._

_You already know that my father was buried in the USA five years ago as per the company's orders. Yet no plans were made regarding Mother._

_However, Jake and I are taking it upon ourselves to bring her home where she belonged. After all, this would have been what she wanted._

_Yes little brother, before you ask, we are coming home to stay._

_Are you finished dancing for joy? Yes? Good._

_This might not be that way we had chosen to come back to Japan, but like it or not, what's done is done…_

_Oh, before I forget (AGAIN!), Jake is now running Fear corp. Neither of us are quite pleased with this, but we have to earn money somehow._

_This leads me to my request:_

_Please, please, **please** under No Circumstances once-so-ever inform your brother of our return! Jake says that since both our fathers are dead, that the contract made ten years ago should be null-and-void. (Don't look so sad, cause in my heart, you'll always be my little brother!) Still, I would rather not take any chances that my brother (as much as I love him) could be wrong. To be frank Mokuba, we just cannot handle the confrontation that your brother is sure to bring up at this point in time._

_Later, if you decide to inform your brother of our return and he grows angry at you, tell Seto Kaiba that I bear the full responsibility of this action and no other._

_If this does not work, please remember that you will always be welcome to stay wherever we call home. No questions will be asked, I promise._

_Boot up the Playstation and PS2, cause I'll see you soon!_

_Love from your favorite Unicorn,_

_Tamara_

_P.S. below is the flight information you'll need to be able to find us…_

Struggling to pick up his jaw up off the floor, Seto just stared at the letter that he had dropped on his desk. Considering how much his little brother adored her, it didn't surprise the elder brother that Mokuba would have been excited about having the two people he loved the most marry. He wasn't sure what surprised him more, the information that he had learned, or the forceful request of Mokuba's secrecy. Taking a deep breaths, he pondered his options.

The first, and most obvious, was to pretend that he had never read that letter. Even as he thought this, he shook his head with a smile. That would be too easy. Scanning the letter again, Seto felt a plan take shape in his mind.

Yes, that would work… He would just drive Mokuba to the airport himself instead of letting him drive with Yugi's gang. Carefully putting the letter back into the envelope, he felt a smirk bloom on his face.

Tamara and Jake had no idea exactly who they were dealing with now… but they'd find out soon enough.

When Seto got back to the mansion that night, his first thought was that a tornado or a SWAT team had ransacked it. Then he mentally smacked himself in the head as the real reason for the mess hit him.

"MOKUBA!" Seto roared at the top of his voice, partly outraged and partly amused.

"Ouch! Coming Seto!" A loud crash and an equally loud thump followed this response. A minute later, Mokuba came in though the kitchen rubbing the egg on his head and the bump on his rump. The look on his face, however, showed nothing but a kind of worried concern on it.

"Looking for this?" Seto asked, feeling sorry for his brother as he handed him the envelope."

"Yes!" Mokuba shouted, doing a little dance of joy before looking at his brother oddly. "You didn't read it did you Seto?" He asked.

"Uh-huh" Seto said, suddenly raising an eyebrow at the vicious curse that came out of his younger brother's mouth. "You would have had to ask me for a ride anyway bro."

"No, because I was going to go with Yugi's gang. That way they wouldn't have had to rent a car." Mokuba just gave his brother a wounded look. "Why did you read it Seto? You've never read any of her letters before."

"You're the one who shoved it into my hands." Seto pointed out as he began to help clean up the mess.

Mokuba winced. "Unicorn's gonna be so mad at me…"

"She should have never asked you to keep anything from me." Seto snapped, feeling the anger start to rise up again.

"I think she had every right to do so Seto. She doesn't know you like I do. You've never once tried to be friendly towards her! For all she knew; you could turned out to be another version of our stepfather, or worse, her father!" Mokuba suddenly flushed and bit his lip.

Seto slowly straightened and looked at his brother from the corner of his eye. "What do you mean 'or worse, her father'?" He asked, trying to sound calm so that Mokuba was silent for a few minutes. Seto could tell that he was thinking very hard about his answer. 'Probably trying to protect Tamara's privacy.' he thought.

Finally Mokuba spoke very quietly. "As bad as our stepfather was to you, he was an amateur compared to Drake. I overheard Tamara telling Jake once that Drake was the man that Gozaburo Kaibia always wanted to be." Mokuba continued as though walking on glass. "She looked so sad, and I thought Jake was going to kill someone he looked so angry." He shook his head. "I don't know any more than that. They never said anything directly to me about why they hated their father so much and I never told them what I overheard."

Seto was forced to close his mouth again. He couldn't even begin to fathom what had gone on that would have caused a comment like that.

Suddenly the image of her fearful face flashed though his mind, and he closed his eyes before continuing to clean.

'What could have possibly been done to her that had caused that reaction on her face?' Seto wondered.

The question didn't have an answer.

Not yet anyway.


	3. Shopping for Unicorn 101

Author's note: thanks to everyone who has reviewed and I don't own yu-gi-oh!

Mokuba just about drove Seto absolutely insane in the days before Tamara and Jake were supposed to arrive. Finally the older brother got so sick of hearing about them that he actually bent far enough to give Mokuba one of his credit cards and told him to go bother the geek squad for a while.

Ten minutes later he bolted out of the room after his brother, suddenly remembering exactly how much money was on _that _particular card…

The geek squad, who had been rather forcefully arguing about something with his brother, suddenly stopped and looked up in surprise when Seto strode though the lobby towards them.

"Hi Kaiba!" Yugi called. "Were you going to join us?"

Seto stopped in his tracks, thinking. His first response was to say no and make Mokuba follow him, but on the other hand…

He did give Mokuba the card… but if he just followed along just to keep an eye on what was being bought…

It was, to his mind at least, an acceptable compromise.

"I might as well, considering that I gave Mokuba one of my credit cards." He snarled, making it seem like it was a big deal, after all, he had appearances to keep.

Mokuba grinned and rolled his eyes. "Don't blame me if you shoved it in my hand without looking at the credit card first."

Seto just growled. "I don't suppose you won't just give it back to me so I can give you a different one, will you?"

"Sorry, no can do. If you want to know what I buy with it, then you'd better come along or just wait for the credit card bill." Came the sass filled answer.

The others were watching this as though it was a tennis match, turning their heads first towards one Kaiba brother, than the other.

"Fine, I'll come." The older brother snarled in defeat, secretly grateful for this unlooked for opportunity to find out more about these two strangers who had somehow made themselves very important in his younger brother's life.

"Cool." Was all Mokuba replied before continuing the conversation his bother had interrupted. "Do we even know where they are staying? Unicorn didn't mention it in her letter."

"Jake did." Yugi replied, pulling a thick envelope and holding it up for the others to see. "I like writing to them both, so I get twice the mail." He grinned at Mokuba's look of surprise. "Well, what else did you think I was spending my dueling money on?"

Picking his jaw up off the floor, Mokuba lightly plucked the letter out of Yugi's hand and scanned it quickly. "Drat! Have those two finally lost their marbles! I can't believe this! Seven hundred and eighty dollars a month for rent!"

Before he could say anything else on the matter, Seto reached down and took the letter from his brother, then he looked at Yugi. "May I?"

"Yes, I think you would find it interesting." Yugi replied with a nod, his face for once completely without expression.

In all the years of dueling Yugi Mutou (AN: I can't spell it, and I don't know the Japanese names), Seto Kaiba had never once seen that look on his face before. Something told him that the contents of the letter were going to be very interesting and informative.

Giving himself a mental shake and ignoring the hostile glares of the others, he started to read:

_Dear Yugi,_

_Thank you so much for the last letter. Sorry I waited so long to reply. I'm cutting the timing on this one kind of short, but I've just been though one mess after another lately. At I write this it's 2 AM and my twin's curled up next to me on the motel couch sleeping soundly for the first time since this whole fiasco started. She's missed me as much as I've missed her._

_From what you tell me Seto Kaiba sounds completely wrapped up in the corporation that his stepfather has left for him, no wonder my sister tries so hard to make her letters as long as possible (I swear, the last letter Tam sent to Mokuba must have needed four stamps!). To answer your question, the older brother has never tried to contact us in any way, I would be surprised if he even knew of Tamara's letters to Mokuba._

_It's odd really, I honestly thought that when Drake died five years ago (privately I think that the shock left by Gozaburo's death was what killed him) that Seto Kaiba would be knocking down our door in his haste to either consummate or annul the contract had been made by our fathers._

_Now Yugi, I will be the first to admit that while I might be a better duelist than my sister (though I've let her win a few to boost her confidence, though I would ask you please not to tell her that, as it really isn't her fault the duel disk system doesn't like her!), I know that if I went up against either you or Seto Kaiba I'd get my ass very soundly kicked! However, if Kaiba thought he was going to marry my sister unwilling, he would have had to go though me first!_

_As it stands, we have neither seen nor heard from him. Granted, I may have had my hands full trying to run this great mammoth of a company, and believe me when I say that I am so thankful for Tamara's help that if she'd let me, I would have willingly put her on the payroll! Even so, I can still see that our return is worrying her._

_Don't take it personal Yugi! She says she can't wait to finally meet all of you (neither can I!), and if you mention Mokuba's name she bounces off the walls in excitement, but I think getting this close to the older brother after all this time scares the shit out of her._

_I know, cause I'm scared too._

_It sounds dumb, and I know that, but five years is a long time to wait. We are both eighteen now but this demented devil's deal of our father's has made us both older than we wish to be. Please Yugi, If Seto Kaiba somehow gets a hold of his brother's letter, get word to us._

_One way or another, this has to end, and it won't be by being blind. _

_Hope to see you soon!_

_Jake_

Seto's blood ran like cold ice in his veins. They were really scared… This wasn't a joke. He remembered all too well what it had been like to be manipulated by his stepfather Gozaburo.

No one deserved that, no matter what.

Taking a deep breath, he handed the letter back to Yugi with a nod.

The Kaiba brothers decided to take everyone for a ride in the limousine just to save time, but while everyone else stampeded outside, Seto and Yugi both hung back a bit.

"Why did you show me that?" he asked calmly, not knowing what to think.

"You needed to know what you were dealing with." Yugi replied, his hands jammed into his pockets.

Seto stopped abruptly to shoot a sharp look at his dueling enemy. "What makes you care about these two so much?"

Yugi just gave him a flat stare. "Jake has told me a little, very little, about their childhood. Tamara tells me even less, she just skips around it. What I've heard I don't like, and my gut tells me that if I ever hear the full story my nonviolent ways will go up in smoke. Like it or not, you are involved in this and you deserved to know what was going on seeing as your Mokuba's older brother."

The older Kaiba stared sightlessly at the door, trying not to let his jaw drop to the floor like an idiot. To hear Yugi Mutou actually threaten physical violence against anyone was a near miracle and a very clear warning!

Visibly shaking himself, Yugi changed the subject. "Let's go before they think that we've tried to kill each other again."

Surprised and confused, Seto Kaiba followed Yugi out to the limo, ignoring the stares by the others.

Gritting his teeth twenty minutes later, he was seriously reconsidering his decision when they got to their destination.

Of all the places, why did it have to be the mall?

Still, the older brother kept his mouth shut as Mokuba pulled him along.

"Let's split up into pairs so that we can cover more ground that way." Mai suggested. "That way the boys don't waste the time drooling over Duel Monster cards."

The boys in the group protested in defense of their injured pride, but the girls paid them no heed.

"Mokuba, give me Kaiba's cell number so that we can keep track of each other in this madhouse." Serenity walked over with her phone extended. Before the older one could say what he really thought about this, his brother had already given Serenity the cell phone and was punching their number into hers.

"Thanks Serenity!" Mokuba grinned as they gave the phones back.

Serenity laughed and grinned before heading off to get lost in the crowd.

"It's just you and me now Seto! Where should we go first?"

As Seto could already start to feel a tension headache coming on, he named the first place he could think of. "Let's try the bookstore."

"Neat! Tamara loves books the way you and Yugi love Duel Monsters! I knew you were developing a soft spot for the Unicorn!"

Kaiba highly doubted that, but he was pleased that his choice appeared to make Mokuba so happy. To avoid any arguments, he allowed himself to be pulled though the crowd so that he wouldn't get his arm pulled off.

There was no one else in the bookstore that Mokuba led them to. When the younger brother let go of his hand to browse, Seto jammed his hands in his pockets. His lip curled slightly as he blindly scanned one of the displays.

"What does Tamara like anyway?" Seto asked his brother, trying to keep his voice neutral so he didn't upset him.

"She loves to write so journals and notebooks are a good pick. Bookmarks are cool too, cause she's forever running out of those. Don't try to get her any books unless you get a list from her, cause chances are pretty good that any books you buy are going to be ones she already has, the same goes for music." Mokuba replied

"Diverse interests?"

"Jake can barely keep up. He's just thankful she's currently more interested in the duel disk than she is in the game it's used for."

Seto raised his eyebrow. "If she doesn't play the game, then what could she possibly want with a duel disk?"

Mokuba shrugged. "I don't know, you can ask if you want since it's really none of my business. The duel disks were your invention, not mine. Maybe she wants to adapt them for some kind of school project or something."

"If she does, she'll be looking at a sky high lawsuit." Seto replied, not bothering to hide the smirk that spread across his face at the very thought.

Mokuba declined to comment on this and instead wandered over to the counter to take a closer look at something that had caught his eye.

Seto frowned then decided that he had better pick something out before his brother got upset. It wouldn't have been the first time that he had faked something he did not feel for his brother's sake after all.

"Hey Mokuba, what does Jake do?' he asked as a sudden thought hit him.

"Jake's a lot like you actually Seto, he had ran his father's company for about five years now, but I don't think he likes it much. He loves to draw and paint stuff. I have learned some great lessons from both of them." Mokuba took a quick peek over his shoulder before paying for (in cash) and pocketing a small boxed deck of cards. "Seto, if you pick out a few journals for them, I'll pick out two books for you that I know for a fact that they don't have yet."

"What are you going to give them then?" Seto asked, turning to look at his brother in surprise.

"I would rather leave that as a surprise for now. Just in case." Mokuba answered as he headed back among the shelves.

Curbing his impatience, he made a show of carefully picking out four of the nicest journals they had, two for writing and two for drawing. Mokuba smiled and handed him two thick hardcover books. Relieved that his part in this was over, Seto said nothing as Mokuba used the credit card to pay for the items.

About a half an hour later, they all met up again at the same spot they had split up. Joey in particular was looking very smug about whatever it was that he had bought. This annoyed Seto, but no amount of verbal taunting would make Joey reveal what his present was.

"I think that we're all set for their return." Yugi said as he stretched when they got back to Kaiba Corp.

"I hope so, I can't wait to see them again!" Mokuba agreed. "See you guys in two days!" Without waiting for an answer he quickly followed his brother inside.

All the while, a secret was burning in his pocket, and his heart.


	4. mysteries and meetings

Author's note: Sorry for the long wait everyone. Parental issues, they think I've been writing too much... Once again, I DON'T own yugioh, only Tamara and Jake. Please review!

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As he had grown into his role as CEO of his company, Seto Kaiba had found that he liked order and calm in his life. Most of the time he could keep Mokuba in line and still go to bed without having to chain his hyperactive brother up to keep the peace between them.

However, the older brother discovered rather quickly that the morning of the Fear's arrival back to Japan equaled about ten sugar rushes in his brother's brain when Seto found himself woken up by a very excited Mokuba at six in the morning on a Saturday which he had taken one of his very rare days off.

Yet this time was very odd as Mokuba seemed to be trying very hard to keep a tight rein on himself. Seto watched with rare open amusement as his brother fidgeted in the white suit jacket and matching pants he had chosen to wear. Mokuba was pacing back and forth, he kept nervously checking the clock on the VCR and muttering to himself.

'This girl must have somehow worked a miracle on my brother considering the fact that my brother is actually wearing a suit of his own free will!' Seto thought as he watched his brother's agitated movements. 'Maybe I should ask her how she did it…' he pondered as remembered the many arguments that the suit issue that had come up over the years.

Finally at nine o'clock, Seto rose to change his clothes. Wanting to show both the Fear twins as well as the Geek Squad that the Kaiba brothers were a united front, Seto quickly changed into the matching outfit that was a larger copy of what the younger brother was wearing.

He took great care in making sure he looked his best. The reason for this was twofold. First, he wanted to calm his brother down by appearing to be just as flattered by the twins' return, and second, he wanted to appear imposing and remind the twins exactly who they were dealing with while using as little effort as possible to achieve the maximum effect.

The look of gratitude on Mokuba's face as Seto rejoined his brother was reward enough. Accepting a hug, Seto grabbed the keys to the new wheelchair accessible van that Mokuba had talked him into buying (much to the older brother's confusion) the day after that little shopping spree and watched as his brother raced to gather the presents that would be put in the trunk.

Looking at the large wrapped rectangle that was currently leaning against the wall, Seto Kaiba couldn't control the snarl that twisted his mouth. Mokuba had walled himself up in his room for two whole days working on his mystery gift, and no amount of bribery Seto tried had worked in making his brother reveal what he had been working on.

When Mokuba came back to load his mystery gift into the van, Seto walked over and picked it up, ignoring his brother's protests.

"Relax Mokuba! I'm just going to put this in the van for you. You did a very good job wrapping this and I don't want it to get ruined." While this was an excuse to calm the younger brother down, Seto also had to admit that this was the truth. Clearly, whatever this was, Mokuba was taking great pains to keep it a perfect secret!

After Seto had put Mokuba's gift in the back. Seto took the driver's seat while Mokuba sat in the back. Hiding a grin, Seto drove smoothly to the airport, inwardly smirking when he passed the Geek Squad on the way.

Even so, both the groups arrived within minutes of each other. The older Kaiba brother couldn't help but notice that they seemed just as nervous as his brother and mentally shook his head in disgust but decided not to say anything. The whole group was silent as they all fought though the crowd to make their way to the gate number that the letter had instructed them.

The plane landed five minutes later and people began to get off.

Mokuba discreetly squeezed Seto's hand when he saw the twins get though the gate.

While Seto couldn't see the brother, who had walked away after a seemingly quick conversation, he saw the girl quite clearly.

'Fey' was the first thought that came to his mind as he stared at the small fragile girl who was sitting calmly in her wheelchair.

"Why didn't you remind me that Jake's sister was crippled?" Seto hissed softly to his brother in anger.

Mokuba shot a glare of disgust at his brother before shooting across the intervening space that separated them from the girl.

"Unicorn!" He shouted, landing in her lap.

Tamara's sad tired blue eyes flashed in pain behind the gold frames of her glasses, which was quickly covered with a smile of warm welcome. "Hey there Monkey! Still jumping into my lap are you?" She asked, wrapping her arms around him in a hug.

"Of course! I missed you and what better way to welcome my favorite best friend home than to jump in her lap?" Mokuba replied, grinning when she burst out laughing, all traces of unhappiness momentarily wiped from her face.

Jake strode over to them, grinning as he tightened his grip on the two rolling suitcases that trailed along behind him. "Hello Mokuba! It's been a while."

"Hey Jake." Mokuba replied as her reluctantly climbs down, careful not mess up Tamara's black skirt. He winked though.

Introductions of everyone else went by quickly. Seto was surprised when Jake's emerald eyes darkened and he took a step closer to an all-too-calm Tamara in a protective gesture when he revealed himself as Mokuba's brother.

Although this was all the reaction they showed, it reminded Seto of a talk that he wanted to have with them as soon as possible.

"Where did you get the leather jackets?" Tea asked as they walked towards the exit. Serenity, Mai, and Tea were all eyeing the dark emerald green leather and velvet that the twins were currently wearing.

"In America, high school students buy letterman jackets when they win an award." Tamara explained.

Jake smiled in pride at his twin. "The side the letter goes on depends on how you get the award. Right side is athletics, and left side is academics. Tamara got hers on the honor roll, and I got mine running in track."

Tamara returned the smile, then blinked at the light smashed into her eyes. "Ouch! Okay, if I wasn't awake when we got off the plane, I am definitely awake now!"

Laughter filled the air, and their welcome home was just getting started.

Seto couldn't wait to see what would happen next…


	5. Settling in, confrontation

Author's note: Since there really doesn't seem to be a lot of interest in this piece, unless I get a lot of feedback or requests, I doubt that it will be continued. Sad but true. Please enjoy that chapter, but if you really want the fic to continue please, leave a review and let me know.

I own Tamara and Jake, but no one else unless otherwise stated.

* * *

The geek squad clustered around Tamara and Jake, continuing to ask questions as Seto followed silently behind. Mokuba was at Tamara's side, chattering away. When they reached where the two cars were parked the group stopped and separated after helping with the twins' luggage. 

Not surprisingly, Mokuba sat in the back near Tamara while Jake took the seat next to Kaiba.

Both older brothers kept a tense silence between them while their younger siblings chatted amongst themselves, stealing glances when they thought that the other wasn't looking. Each brother was happy that their younger sibling was having a good time, but they did not trust each other.

It was a very tense twenty minutes later when both the Kaiba car and the Geek squads' car pulled up to the apartment building. Jake unloaded his sister with a smile, then left her to handle their luggage while he went inside to get their keys. Tamara quickly organized the group and took a few of the bags herself.

"Jake went to get the keys. We'll meet him inside, the number is four hundred and thirty-two. You can ride in the elevator if you want." She explained as Yugi held the door open for her.

A minute later, Tamara was choking back laughter as Yugi, Tristan and Joey were all racing each other up the stairs. "Oh my… do they do that often?" she asked faintly.

"Honey, they're men. What do you think?" Mai asked.

The answering expression on Tamara's face was priceless and made Seto really wish that he had a camera. '_You're not used to being around men are you Tamara?_' He thought as the rest of them filed into the elevator. '_Is this why you are so afraid of me? Or is there something else that feeds your fear?_'

Gettingout of the elevator Seto Kaiba kept a close eye on the redhead that Mokuba was so adoring of. While she laughed and joked with the other girls, he pretended not to notice the wary glances that she kept tossing his way. Once the elevator had reached the fourth floor, Tamara rolled out and kept a sharp eye out for the numbered apartment door.

Jake was waiting outside the door, a patient smile on his face. "Come on slow poke. I thought you said that tires were faster than legs!" He called playfully to his sister.

"They are, but you cheated and got a head start on me!" Tamara laughed happily as she rolled to his side. "Got the keys?"

"Yep. Here, you open the door." Jake told her, handing her one key before grinning. "Mokuba, catch!" He called, tossing Mokuba another key.

Mokuba caught the other key with a grin. "Thanks."

Seto kept his thoughts to himself as Tamara unlocked the door. Yugi and the other guys had just reached them, panting from the run.

The twins were the first to enter the sparely furnished apartment, and the two of them seemed pleased with what they saw. Jake left their suitcases in the living room and started to look around while Tamara headed directly towards the kitchen.

She first had to eject Joey from that area. "Joey, get out of the kitchen! You aren't the only one who is hungry! Besides, there's nothing in there!" The redhead called as she disappeared from sight.

Mai laughed. "That a girl, show him whose the boss around here! Joey, come here and give me a hand with this stuff."

Jake went into the kitchen and lightly pushed Joey towards Mai. "You heard the ladies, move it." He winked at Tamara over his shoulder. "Who unpacks and who going shopping for food?" The elder one asked his twin.

"You go, you're more mobile than I am dearest. Besides, you can carry more than I can." She smiled at her brother sweetly.

He sighed as he raked his hand though his copper colored hair. "Somehow I knew you were going to say that." He grinned rakishly at her as his emerald orbs danced with affection. "I'll help clean and unpack though before I go. It's not like we're in a hurry."

Thus the cleaning and unpacking commenced, Mokuba and Kaiba stripped themselves of their suit jackets before they gave a hand. Neither spoke much, but Mokuba seemed to be intent on helping Jake out, which left his older brother free to aid the younger sister if he wanted to do so.

Seto wasn't stupid, seeing her try to roll one of the larger suitcases out of the room, he took the opportunity that was being presented to him and walked over to help.

"Here, I'll get that, just show me where to put it." He told her, taking the handle out of her grasp.

Tamara looked at him for a moment, but had no choice but to wordlessly lead him to the bare and colorless bedroom. She didn't look at Seto as she took off her coat and unhooked the ugliest mint green backpack that he had ever seen off of the back of her power wheelchair and tossed them both onto the bed.

"Please put the suitcase there next to the bed, I'll deal with it later." She said politely as she calmly unzipped the bag and took out two different kinds of duel disks and her dueling deck. Driving over to the desk that was in the room, she placed then neatly on one side, leaving room on the rest of it.

It did not escape Kaiba's notice that although the first things out of her bag had to do with duel monsters, Tamara didn't seem all that interested about her deck, having left it out in plain sight for anybody to see. He watched in silence as she continued to unpack the bag, raising his eyebrow when he was a Dueling Academy laptop join the other items on her desk, she seemed to have forgotten that he was still in the room and decides to say something.

"I hope you know that your backpack is the ugliest thing I've ever seen."

Tamara shot a look at him. "I know, but I can place the heavy stuff in here and the bottom won't rip out. As long as it gets the job done, I don't really care how it looks." Picking up the now empty bag, she hung it on the back of her door. "There, all done in here for now. Let's go."

He put a hand on her shoulder, his gaze piercing as he looked her full in the face. "We need to talk first Ms. Fear. This is as good a time as any and I wanted to speak to you alone first."


	6. Contracts, explosions, and goodbyes

Author's note: I would first like to thank setos angel01 for taking the time to help me with the bulk of this chapter. Once agian, blame my laptop for the delay in updating. Enjoy the read and please remember to review!

* * *

For a moment, a worried look came into her topaz eyes, and she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose in order to give herself time to think. Sitting up straighter in her chair, Tamara favored him with a cold stare. "Oh, and what would you like to speak to me about _Mr._ Kaiba?" She asked in a hard voice. 

Kaiba looked down at the frail young woman, "The arranged marriage that our fathers have so _kindly_ set up for us." he said with a slight growl in his voice. Just mentioning his step-'father' made anger flair up from the very depths of his soul.

"Jake says that with the deaths of both our father and your stepfather the contract is now null and void." She answered, turning her face away from him

"He could be wrong; our fathers weren't as stupid as we would like to think. They could have put something in the contract about what to do incase of their deaths." He said with a slight scowl on his face. "I knew Gozaburo, he would have thought of something like this so as to make my life more miserable than he already did." He continued, never taking his icy blue eyes from her.

Tamara shrugged, not looking at him. "If you don't want my brother's company, don't marry me." She said simply, still looking at her desk with seemingly unfocused eyes.

He glared at her with fire in his eyes, "I do want that company," he said a little louder than he had intended.

Now Tamara's head snapped back to face him, her eyes now blazing with their own fire. "We'd give you the company if we could. Trust me." She said bitterly.

Kaiba looked at her, shocked for a moment, "What do you mean if you could?" he asked in a deathly calm voice.

"I meant just what I said. Three generations ago, my great-great grandfather set it up so that Fear Corp could legally only be passed down though the male side of the family. The only way my brother can get rid of it and still be able to support us is by giving it to _his_ son. Only if Jake dies without a legal heir, would it pass to my _husband_, not directly to me."

Kaiba was starting to get a little mad as he listened to her words. The one company he actually wanted, he legally could not have. "What?! I've wanted the power of your father's company since my stepfather died and now I can't even touch it?!" he shouted angrily.

Tamara flinched and closed her eyes. "Please don't shout at me, Mokuba might hear you. It's not my fault your father was blind to the small print. Yet, as it turns out, there was also something in the fine print that my father missed as well: If my brother wanted to give up the company before he had children, the only person that he could pass it onto would be my husband." She said quietly. "Besides, if you had really wanted our father's company so badly, why are you making a fuss over it now, instead of when you heard that our father had passed?"

Kaiba bowed his head in frustration, and then said in a slightly softer voice. "I was trying to turn my step-father's company from a war supplies corporation, to that of a gaming one." He wanted other children's lives to be better than his was.

"Still, why are you acting like this is our fault? We didn't want this either, you know." Her voice was very quiet, and she still was not looking at him.

He did not really know how to reply, no one had ever questioned him as much as this girl had. Maybe, just maybe, she was not as bad as he imagined that she would be. Finally, after a long pause he answered, "I really don't know." he admitted, though his eyes still appeared glazed over with ice when he met her gaze.

"How did you even know that we were coming back here?" She asked, or rather, demanded of Kaiba. The sudden question felt like a bomb going off after the few minutes of utter silence between that stretched between them.

Kaiba thought over what to say, the letter said not to tell him and he did not want to let her know Mokuba had told him. "I have my own ways of finding things out," he said with his head high and a slight smirk on his face.

The redhead sighed and shook her head upon seeing the older Kaiba brother's smirk. "Damn..." Rubbing her temples, she tried to get her thoughts in order. "This _wasn't_ when I wanted this discussion to happen..." She muttered.

"Then when would you have preferred to have had it? About two years after you moved here?" he asked trying to redeem himself in his own eyes for letting some of his emotion go.

"Preferably, you would have never known we were back at all." Tamara said flatly.

Kaiba glared at her, "I would have found out you know. Mokuba would have told me even if you asked him not to," he said sternly.

"There's nothing you can do anyway. My brother wouldn't let you marry me." She said firmly in a cold voice. The redhead sounded very confident about that, almost too much so.

"I guess my father's not the only one who didn't read the fine lines. It clearly states that if we are not married by our twenty-first birthdays that not only will I loose my company but so will you. That means you will have nothing left but the clothes on your back and what little money you have saved in your bank account." He stated firmly, feeling as though he had just won the argument.

She swore quietly but intensely, using words that Jake would not have known she learned. As the girl was openly venting her feelings she made a beeline for the ugly backpack again and when she unzipped yet another compartment that Kaiba had not noticed the first time, she commenced taking out some very heavy folders. "Which one did I put the fucking thing in this time…? That can't be right; I've read the thing a thousand times..." She kept muttering.

"Well clearly, you didn't read it enough." he said, looking over her shoulder, glaring at the offending contract in her hands. "I wouldn't lie about something like this! If I could get out of marrying you, while still getting your company, believe me I would." Kaiba ran his hand through his thick brown hair as she filed through the collection of papers. "It's at the very end of the contract," he said as she flipped through the large document.

Still muttering, she leafed though the document, squinting her eyes. She was silent for a few long moments as she read to herself. "Shit, Damn, Hell..." She suddenly spat out, growling curses to herself.

Kaiba smirked in glory at being proven right, then scowled in disapproval of the redhead's choice of nasty language. Just then, Mokuba came bursting through the door, "Houston we have food!" he said happily bouncing over to Tamara.

Looking up, Tamara stopped her flow of curses and somehow managed a smile for the younger Kaiba brother, though it never reached her eyes. "Thank you little brother. Could you ask my brother to come in here please?"

Mokuba nodded, though not as happy when he left.

"I'll let you tell your brother alone." The older brother said smugly, before making his way out of her room, and safely out of range of the coming emotional storm that was going to take place. The older Kaiba brother just made himself comfortable on the couch watching the others fool around.

After about ten minutes, both of the twins joined the others. They were a little pale, but otherwise neither one gave any sign of being upset while in front of their guests. Giving everyone a smile, Jake headed for the boys, while the girls followed Tamara into the kitchen. Mokuba snuck off to join the girls, not really wanting to let his redheaded unicorn out of his sight when he sensed that something had upset her.

Mokuba popped up beside Tamara, "You okay unicorn?" he asked as the other girls were looking around the kitchen and putting the food away. Meanwhile, in the living room all the males sat around and watched a little bit of television. Kaiba glanced over at Jake and saw a slight scowl on his lips along with a dark shadowed look in his eyes, he did not have to ask why Jake was upset, it was because of him. However, Kaiba would not have asked anyways.

Tamara smiled at Mokuba. "Yeah, I wasn't expecting your brother to show up though. I don't think he likes me, not that I blame him." She said quietly as he helped her put things away.

Mokuba smiled his usual warm smile, "You just have to give him a chance to warm up to you is all. I actually think he might like you a little bit," he said with a small twinkle in his eyes. He would make his brother be nice to her even if he had to do it the hard way.

"Oh really? How do you figure? If looks could kill, I'd be dead already little brother." She murmured, giving him a cookie.

"Well he hasn't said anything nasty to you right? That means that he doesn't dislike you," he said while stuffing his face with the cookie. In the other room, Jake finally had to say something so he followed Kaiba into the kitchen right after he left.

"Your brother has already made it clear he isn't happy about the idea of marrying me Mokuba." Tamara answered calmly, keeping her voice down.

"That's just the kind of person he is, if you knew him like I do then you would understand what I mean." Mokuba told her while giving her a hug.

Jake smirked at Kaiba. "It never says you have to marry _her_ in the contract if you want to keep your company." He said quietly with a nod as he watched the older Kaiba brother fill a glass with water.

Kaiba, who had been taking a drink, nearly spat the water out of his mouth when he heard Jake say that. "Yes it does, maybe you just overlooked that part.," he said in near invisible panic.

"Not unless my father changed it after _I_ left the room." He answered, smiling at the women, seeing Mokuba come back into the kitchen with another cookie in hand.

The older Kaiba brother saw that he could not convince Jake. "Okay, you caught me with that one, but you are forgetting that there was a reason behind the marriage arrangement." Kaiba said in a hushed voice watching Mokuba smile at him from where he was with Tamara as he walked into the living room and resumed his seat on the couch.

"I won't see my sister married off just for money." Jake said in heated but low tones as Jake followed him. "I don't give a damn about my father's company, I just want her happiness."

"My father told me and also wrote in a contract that I would loose my company if I didn't marry before I was twenty-one. I don't date, so I was hoping that I would use the contract to my advantage." Kaiba whispered in a solid voice.

"Marry for another company then, but leave my twin out of this. Marriage isn't in her plans, much less marrying you." Jake snapped back.

He growled softly, "It's not up to you is it?" he said a little louder. No matter what he had to do, they would be married; at least he would have a chance to get to know her first. Besides that, Kaiba would never marry a slut who just wanted him for his money. Mokuba looked back and forth between the kitchen and his brother in confusion, wondering just what was going on between the two older brothers.

"It's her choice, not mine." He replied with a shrug. "But if she says 'no' I will support her." Jake added. "Why would you want to marry her anyway?"

"Of course you will. You can't stand me or the thought of me marrying your little sister." Kaiba said with a smirk pasted on his face. He looked up at Jake, "Well for one, she's not after my money or my looks." Kaiba said.

"She doesn't like you, or most men for that matter."

"Well she doesn't even know who I am. And what do you mean she doesn't like men?" he asked raising his eyebrow.

"She doesn't trust them. Our father was worse than yours, let's just put it that way and leave it at that." The older brother replied grimly.

Feeling as though he'd just been stung by something, Kaiba's sharp blue eyes now stared at Tamara. The redhead in question had just entered again, and Seto found himself trying to figure out how she could be so sane given what her older brother had just told him. Kaiba couldn't imagine what could have possibly been done to the girl for Jake to speak so bitterly.

Tamara looked at her brother worriedly. When the brother nodded, she relaxed. Yugi walked over and began talking to her, making her laugh. Her laughter was odd, sounding as though she couldn't get enough air into her lungs.

Both older brothers looked at the young woman, "So what exactly is wrong with her? For one I don't remember her in a wheelchair." Kaiba asked, getting another glass of water before rejoining the angered protective brother of the girl he was to marry in order to save his company.

"Your memory must be faulty then. She was born with cerebral palsy. While she can walk, it takes a while and it looks odd, so she just uses her chair when she goes out. Her laugh sounds strange because of a body brace she had to wear when she was thirteen after she has corrective surgery on her spine." Jake said quietly, watching her talk with the others.

"Oh…" Kaiba muttered softly, he had never met someone who could be so happy after all she had been through. He had always blamed his father for the way he is now, but she didn't use that as an excuse. Maybe he would really start to like her.

"What she has now, she has earned." Jake said softly, flexing his fingers as he watched her.

As though sensing this change in her twin, Tamara looked over at her brother before giving him a loving smile and driving over. "Itchy painter fingers brother?" She asked knowingly, ignoring the older Kaiba brother.

Jake looked chagrined as he nodded in agreement. "Am I that transparent sister?" He asked.

"Not to most my dearest brother, but of all alive, I know you best." The smile she bestowed on her brother said volumes about how much she loved and trusted him. "Who cooks today?" She asked, changing the subject.

"I will, at least until we can fix the kitchen to where you can get to everything. Think you can keep the guys busy for that long?" He asked with a grin.

"I think I can handle that brother." She said calmly. "Just make a lot of food; they'll be too busy eating then. If they get too rowdy, the girls and our younger brother will help me keep things in line. There are some very _interesting_ dynamics within this group." The last was said with a somewhat evil grin.

Jake groaned. "Just please try _not_ to get your fingers into _too_ many pies, okay?" He asked, a hint of desperation coloring his voice.

"Who? Little ol' me?" The girl asked innocently, batting her laughing blue eyes at Jake. When her older brother almost doubled over in laughter, she steadied him with a slender nail-bitten hand. "Don't worry about it, I'm good at this. I'm the people person remember?" She said in a more serious voice, with a somewhat bittersweet smile curving her lips.

The older brother got his breath back and grinned at her. "I never doubted you hon." He said, leaning forward to kiss her forehead before standing. When she rejoined the safety of the others, he headed to the kitchen.

Seeing that his unicorn and her brother were now otherwise occupied, Mokuba ambled over to his brother to check on him. "How are you doing Seto? If you're bored, you don't have to stay for lunch just because I'm here." He told his brother, unsure of what the shocked look on his face meant.

Kaiba couldn't believe that this otherwise timid sounding young woman had this new side to her, oh yes; she was going to be an interesting person to be around. "I think I'll stay Mokuba, I know you want me to." he said even though that wasn't the real reason.

Eyeing his older brother oddly, Mokuba nonetheless nodded. "Okay. You might have some competition though; Duke's been looking kinda strangely at Tamara when Serenity isn't paying attention to him." He warned quietly.

"What makes you think I care." he said, though just the thought of Duke touching Tamara made him sick. She wasn't his, at least not yet, but he wasn't going to let some other guy have her.

He shrugged. "I just thought you'd want to know." As Mokuba spoke, his eyes drifted towards Duke, who was smiling charmingly at the young redhead.

In his mind he was yelling and cursing at Duke, but he would make sure they wouldn't get too close. Kaiba decided that he would stay and sit next to Tamara at lunch today. "Thanks for telling me bro." he said patting his brother on the head, showing a smile only his brother ever got to see.

"Your welcome, I'm not too fond of him either." The younger brother replied as Tamara smiled back, nodding at whatever Duke had said, but backing up slightly when he seemed to be (in her eyes anyway) getting too close for her comfort.

Kaiba glared intensely as Duke moved a little too close, too close to Tamara for his liking. As though reading his older brother's mind, Mokuba walked back over to the group and sat in the redhead's lap as to make it clear that no one was to get too close her. Mokuba looked over at his brother who gave him a small nod, then went to start a conversation with his unicorn.

"Was I that obvious Mokuba?" The redhead asked softly as Duke now danced attendance on Serenity again.

"Sorry sis but yeah, you were… plus, I think someone else here likes you." he said with a small knowing smile on his face as he cuddled. Mokuba hoped that his two most favorite people in the world would get together, though he knew that it would take a while for both of these stubborn people to come around to that idea.

"I was trying to be discreet." She said, hugging Mokuba for a minute, ignoring the pain in her legs from his weight before parking her wheelchair next to the other couch. "Duke invited me to his shop to take a look at the dice game he invented."

Mokuba got up and sat on the arm of the couch next to her. "I hope you said no, it's not a very interesting game, plus I don't want you alone with him. He just wants to get into girls pants."

"Mokuba! Watch your tongue! You are too young to use that kind of language! Even if the game does turn out to be boring, I would still like to learn about it. I'll ask Yugi or Jake to come with me though. You are right about not being left alone with him." She said, staring into space as she turned this over in her mind.

The younger Kaiba brother grinned wide, "Okay, but then you have to come and take a tour of Kaiba Corp. It's _so_ cool, you will love it." he said happily knowing this would turn out to be a great idea.

"You aren't going to lock us in a room together or something are you?" She asked suspiciously, expecting a tick of some sort would end up being played on her during the visit.

"Psh no, cause when the door was unlocked I would be a dead man. It's just a great place to look at, trust me I practically live there some days." he said.

"I know. I might stop by there on business for Jake later in the week." Tamara replied, smiling affectionately as she ruffled Mokuba's hair. "Mind watching this horde of people for me for a few minutes? I'm going to go change my clothes."

"You bet!" he said as he stood up on the couch, "All right everyone I'm in charge now!!! FEAR ME!" he shouted sounding like a wild man. Kaiba just stared at his little brother like he was on some sort of crazy drug or just a sugar high.

Tamara chuckled softly, shaking her head as she turned her wheelchair around to go back down the hallway to her room. When Jake popped his head out the kitchen door in concern, the girl just nodded, and Jake went back to what he was doing.

Just then Mokuba ran to the small radio that was placed on the counter next to the phone and turned it on. 'Animals' was playing which the young brother sang to much to his older brother's dismay. Everyone watched the boy sing and dance around and soon everyone was doing the same, except Kaiba, who still sat on the couch in deep thought.

Duke was chatting with the girls, but his jade eyes kept wandering back to the hallway where Tamara had vanished. Jake came out of the kitchen grinning as he joined in the dance. The older Fear sibling didn't seem as all concerned about dignity as he took turns with all the girls on the impromptu dance floor.

As everyone danced Kaiba got up looking for the bathroom. He walked down the hall opening each door then closing them back as he found them not to be the room. Looking into the next room that was cracked he realized that it was Tamara's room.

The redhead was humming softly, she had changed her clothes and was now wearing jet black jeans and a soft black sweater that left no skin exposed anywhere. Unaware that the door was slightly open, the redhead was concentrating on inserting her right hand into a support brace, now and then cursing softly as she quietly struggled to adjust her wrist into the proper position.

A deep voice boomed in the seemingly small bedroom, "You need some help?" Kaiba asked not trying to intrude on her getting dressed. Even though he, as some people said, had a heart of ice; he still felt he should help her. In the back of his mind, he told himself that the only reason he pretended to care was to prove to his betrothed that he could be a gentleman when he chose to do so.

Though Tamara jumped about a mile high, and turned deep red, she decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Taking a deep breath, she forced her heart to calm back down to a more normal pace. "If you could please hold my brace still, Mr. Kaiba, I'll be able to get my wrist straight. Normally I'm able to do this on my own, but my hand is being stubborn today." She said quietly, yet oddly formally. There was a guarded expression in her light blue eyes, as though she was fully expecting a second nasty remark or seeing a disgusted expression on his face. The redhead still remembered his offhanded hurtful remark about not wanting to marry her while at the same time still getting her brother's company, and was absolutely determined that she wouldn't let his charm get to her.

Kaiba nervously took hold of her brace as she finished putting it on. Watching her gently flex and coax the twisted joints of her right hand into the brace, he couldn't help but wonder if it hurt when her joints snapped and popped, since it sounded like it did. Looking at her hand, Kaiba now understood why she didn't play Duel Monsters often.

"Thank you for your help." she said, when she had finished and pulled away from him.

He just stared at her for a moment then realized what he was doing and blinked a few times and put the cold back his eyes. "Sure whatever." he said as he turned to walk from the room. Then he stopped short of the door and said very softly, "Don't be afraid of me." was all he said then continued on into the hall.

With a quiet sigh, Tamara followed, ignoring the ache in her right hand for being in a set position. Almost too soft for him to hear, she replied. "Fear is what's kept me and my brother alive this long." Without waiting for a reply, the redhead rolled past him and headed back into the kitchen, smiling when she saw her brother having fun with the others.

All Kaiba could do was sigh as he walked into the living room and sat on the far side of the room, so as to not get in the way of the dancing fools. 'What a bunch of losers, I don't see what my brother sees in them' he thought to himself. Just then his phone rang; no one else heard it from what he could tell. He got up and walked to the end of the hall where a balcony was and stood out there the answered his phone. "This better be good" he said forgetting to close the door.

"Sir, we have the information you wanted on Fear corp. as well as the twins themselves." Was the neutral reply from the other end of the line.

"Really? Then please do go on." Kaiba said, sitting on a near by chair and listening intensely to what his employee would say.

"Mr. Jake may own the company in name, but it's really Ms. Tamara who keeps things running smoothly. It's rumored that he has a learning impairment, though their father took great care to stamp any evidence of that out while he was living. Many in her brother's company were fired because they refused to accept a woman acting as their employer's right hand."

"You must be kidding me; she looks like she could barely dress herself. How am I supposed to believe that she runs an entire company that is almost as good as mine?" Kaiba asked as he got up and slowly paced on the small patio area. "This can't be, check again" he said and hung up the phone the leaned over the rail slightly.

Needing a break, Jake soon joined him on the patio, smiling even as he caught his breath. "Having problems at work Mr. Kaiba?" He asked calmly, as he took in the scenery.

Kaiba sighed, "Sometime I wonder how the hell I even do this" he said picking his head up and glaring out onto the small pond that was in the distance. Even though he loved his company sometime he wished he could be like every other person, not a rich, coldhearted bastard he knew he was.

The elder Fear laughed quietly. "I completely understand what you mean. If it wasn't for Tamara, I don't know what I'd do besides go insane."

"What do you mean?" Kaiba asked even though he already knew, he just wanted to hear it straight from the horses mouth. Just then his phone rang again, but he ignored it, not wanting to talk to his people and at the moment being far more interested in the older brother's answer.

"The first thing I did after my father died was make my twin second in command. I didn't trust anyone else. If it had been my choice, I would have burned it to the ground, but I had my sister and mother to support and we were both still in school." Bitterness twisted his mouth. "I made the best route I could, but I'm still wondering if it was the right one."

"I know I made the right decision the day Gozoburo died." Kaiba said thinking about the horrible things his step father did to him. "I would not have let Mokuba go through what I did, so I did what I needed to do in order to let him have the childhood I never had." Kaiba said with a deep angry sigh. "What I would give to know what its like to be a kid." he said softly. Both of the older brothers were unaware that their two very curious siblings had come looking for them and were now listening on the other side of the glass patio door.

Jake shook his head quietly. "It was already too late for that when our father finally croaked, but I have done my best to make my sister content. She's my best friend as well as my little sister. I would sooner cut off an arm or a leg than cause her any more pain." He said softly.

Hearing this, Tamara couldn't help but slip out onto the balcony and wordlessly wrapped one arm around his waist. Turning her face up to her brother, she tried to comfort him. "We are together, that's all that matters now. You did your best, that's all I could ask for. The only thing that could ever hurt me now would be to somehow lose you, or otherwise hurt you in some way."

Smiling, her brother returned the hug. "Well that won't happen, so don't even go there sis. Let's go back inside, it's almost lunchtime."

"Yes twin." Tamara replied in meek obedience, turning with her brother and heading back to the apartment.

Only after they left did Mokuba come out smiling at his brother. "Are you sure that you want to stay for lunch Seto?" Tactfully, the younger brother was pretending that he hadn't heard the twin's clearly private conversation.

Kaiba felt like he was reeling from a blow. If he had wanted proof of how close those two were, he now had it in abundance. They were even closer than him and his brother. "Yeah, I'm sure little bro. Let's go eat."

By the time Kaiba and Mokuba re-entered the apartment, everyone else was helping set the table. Wordlessly, the older Kaiba attached himself to Tamara, not liking the way the Duke kept looking at her even as he escorted Serenity to a seat before taking a seat beside the brown eyed girl. When the redhead parked her wheelchair in the space provided, Kaiba sat in her weaker right side, knowing that either her bother or Mokuba would guard her other side.

Throughout the meal, Seto Kaiba paid little attention to the others, but instead concentrated on unobtrusively watching his rather reluctant and rebellious bride. He noticed that when Duke tried one of his heavier come-ons, Tamara looked more confused than uncomfortable. She usually dodged them, but at times couldn't quite manage it completely. Seeing her honest confusion was the only thing that kept him from exploding at the table, however, he couldn't help himself from throwing Duke an icy heated glare. Seeing that this shut Duke up except for politeness for the rest of the meal, Kaiba turned his attention back to his food. Still, he couldn't help but notice that Tamara was careful to keep her braced right hand in her lap, rather then letting it rest on the table where the others could see it.

After lunch, everyone helped clean up. They were about to go back into the living room when both Yugi's and Jake's cell phones went off at the same time. When they both hung up a minute or two later, neither of them looked happy.

"Sorry Tam, but grandpa wants the car back, so we need to leave." Yugi hugged her though. "Go ahead and open our presents anyway. I know you'll let us know what you think later." Giving her another hug, the gang all filed out of the apartment.

"Sweetie, I need to go into the office, some of the mergers aren't going as they should." Jake was grabbing his jacket as he spoke and already walking towards the door. Then he seemed to remember something and stopped mid-step. "Do you need anything before I go?"

Mingled shame and disappointment briefly crossed her face as she rolled over to him, whatever she said into his ear made his voice fill with self-embarrassment. "Oops, I forgot about that. Okay." Taking her hand, they both disappeared into the hallway.

A couple of minutes later, they came back. Jake said goodbye to the Kaiba brothers and rushed out.

Tamara sighed and shook her head. "Well, that's that."

The Kaiba brothers left soon after that because Kaiba had to get back to work, but he couldn't forget the sad but accepting look on Tamara's face when Jake had almost left without saying goodbye to her.


	7. The Deck vs Dungeon Dice

Author's Note: This chapter is really, really long! Hopefully this will make up for the long wait between updates. I would like to take the time to introduce my new partner for this story Zeo-Chan, and thank her for her help with this and future chapters. The song that is used in second part of this chapter is called 'Fly Away' and written by me as well. Enjoy the read everyone!

The din of voices hummed though the air as the other CEOs in the room argued amongst themselves about Seto Kaiba's impending marriage, every once in a while glancing at him as they waited for him to start the meeting. Although the head of Kaiba Corp seemed to be off in his own thoughts, they all knew better than to think that he wasn't paying any attention to what was going on at the table.

In order to give himself time to think, Kaiba allowed his thoughts to wander, letting it be filled with the voices from the other CEOs. At the back of his mind he kept screaming it was horrible but he was wrong. He licked his dry lips and turned his attention back to everyone else. "All right, let's get started." he said, his voice gruff and commanding silence.

Instantly, the room became so quiet that you could hear a pin drop in the room as they all looked at him.

Kaiba liked the feeling that all eyes were on him and only him. He sucked in a deep breath and opened his mouth. "As many of you already know, I must marry soon." he started out, hoping someone would speak their mind and soon.

"So it's true that your step-father has really made arrangements for you to marry Drake Fear's crippled daughter?" One asked in surprise, as three others flinched.

"That is correct," Kaiba said, knowing his voice was cold and cruel sounding. "To my dismay, but it cannot be helped. And I must be wedded soon as well." Kaiba's fingers snaked out and gripped the coffee cup that was placed in front of him.

"Surely there is something you can do?" another one popped up, braver now that someone else spoke.

Another coughed. This was the same one who had given him the information about the twins that day before. "Tamara Alexandra Fear might be in a wheelchair, but there is nothing wrong with her mind. We are dealing with a very intelligent lady."

The guy, 'Was his name Ashen?' Kaiba thought privately, pulled his brows tight and leveled a look at Kaiba. Something someone rarely did. Kaiba leveled a glare of his own and that sent Ashen scrambling back into his seat. "Okay, does anyone else have any problems with Ms. Fear?" Kaiba asked his voice sounding extremely cold.

Now some of them were starting to look a little nervous. "With her disability, she would only be a dead weight to you Mr. Kaiba. Your best bet would be to marry her, send her off out of the way for a few months, and then quietly file for divorce. I'm sure that she wouldn't object to that, she might even be expecting that if she is as intelligent as Ashton seems to think."

"It's Ashen," The guy muttered but allowed his voice to be drowned out. Kaiba's eyes snapped up. "A divorce would be messier than getting an annulment." he pointed out, his tongue clicking on the roof of his mouth. The other guy shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Whatever floats your boat sir."

"One thing's for certain, the public would never believe that you married her willingly based off of her looks. If you really want to be rid of her, arrange an 'accident' of some kind after you marry her." Another hard-faced CEO, who was well known for hating all women, suggested.

"That won't be necessary," Kaiba hissed, pushing his chair back and standing up. "An 'accident' surely won't happen, and I will not tolerate it. I am only doing this for my company," Kaiba's deep voice hissed even louder. "If I find out anything is being arranged whether before or after our annulment, I'll have your head for sure." Kaiba's threat hung in the open air and everyone knew what that meant. "Yes sir," the hard-faced CEO responded, sinking into the back of his chair as best as he could.

"What if she refuses to separate?" The first one asked.

Annoyed, Kaiba looked to his side. "She's the one who came up with the idea in the first place. She's not too pleased about the idea and neither am I." This was a lie, as she had never said such a thing to him; he was merely stalling for time. His hands shook as he looked at the men around the room. Suddenly it felt like the walls where closing in and everyone was ganging up on him... Wait! The great Seto Kaiba never gives into pressure! He waited and swallowed the words and lump forming at the back of his throat. No way in hell was he falling for this female.

"When did she do this? The first one asked curiously. "Did the lady mention under what grounds the marriage would be annulled by?"

Kaiba shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "No, she did not." he replied, his eyebrow raising. "I suppose you are going to tell me."

He shook his head. "No Sir!"

"Oh, why is that?" Kaiba asked, glaring at the man.

"I wouldn't spoil it, if you really want to know, ask the lady yourself." Came the sass filled answer as the man struggled not to smile.

Kaiba snorted and took a deep breath. "Ask her myself?" he said, incredulous that the man had the balls to tell him that. Not to mention the fact that the man's voice was sassy and challenging to him.

"Why not, you're the one marrying her. Though, just to warn you, she'll make sure to make it as hard as possible." He shrugged. "She's got to vent her temper somewhere, and it may as well be on you considering you are the root of her problems."

"I'm the root of her problems? Hmmm... That's a first," Kaiba mumbled out loud, stroking his chin. "But it might be possible." Ashen, the sullen CEO said, his eyebrow rose as well. Kaiba shrugged his shoulders, ignoring the statement.

"What else did you wish to discuss sir?" One of them asked, hoping that the meeting would be called to an end.

"Uh, I guess this'll be it. I'm a little tired today," Kaiba said, the truth slowly was making itself known behind his eyes. The other members nodded their heads, stood up then bowed politely to the multimillionaire. "Have a good day," they all politely said before stepping out of the room.

Kaiba waved them off then whirled around to slam the door shut. The noise echoed loudly in his ears but he didn't care. For once he wanted some peace and quiet, and damnit, he was going to get it! But, the peace was shattered only a minute later. His cell phone started buzzing in his pocket, vibrating against his chest. He pulled it out with his slender fingers and stared at the screen for a moment. MOKUBA flashed two more times, alerting him his brother left a text message.

You have someone waiting for you in your office. The message said. Before you ask, no, I'm not skipping class. It was a half day at school today.

Kaiba rolled his eyes; he had completely forgotten about the half day of school. But who was waiting in his office? Tamara? Or maybe Mokuba, he thought, shutting the phone and stuffing it back into his pocket. He stood on his long legs and stretched, his tired muscles voicing their complaints. He hadn't slept very well lately and his body was screaming at him to. Ignore it, his mind whispered as he moved slowly to the door.

Unaware that Mokuba had seen her, Tamara waited calmly for the person she had been sent here to see. The redhead was still wearing black, which wasn't a good color for her at all. As she waited, she stroked her neat braid that was now pulled over her shoulder with one black gloved hand while her blue eyes sightlessly stared into space.

"What the hell?" Kaiba said, turning the corner to his office. The door was open a crack and he could make out a figure inside, a female figure at that. His employees were shooting glances towards his office but when he stalked by they all hunkered down and went back about their work. "Tamara!" Kaiba said, pushing the door open then shut it in a fluid movement.

"Well, good morning to you too Mr. Kaiba." She replied calmly, not surprised at his rudeness.

He growled. "Yes, yes, good morning. Now, why are you here!" he exclaimed, hearing the thunk outside the door then the scurry of heels against the flooring. "Hang on," he held up one finger then spun around and flung the door open. "You all had better stay away from this door or else!" he shouted before shutting it again. Tamara's steady gaze came to rest on his eyes and he fought the urge to look away.

"My brother sent me to request a copy of the contract that your step-father owned." She replied, stroking her braid as she spoke.

"Ah," Kaiba said, and then cocked his head sideways. "I thought I gave you a copy?" he said, frowning.

She shook her head but kept her reply respectfully professional. "We have our father's copy, but not your step-father's."

"Oh, it's around here in one of the files. I'll have one of the girls go copy it for you." Kaiba waved his hand and crossed his room. She only nodded as he pressed the intercom button and told the young woman on the other end to make a copy of the contract.

Although she felt defenseless in the dragon's den, Tamara was doing her level best not to show it. Only the continued stroking of her braid gave her emotional state away.

Kaiba saw through her act instantly and settled himself into his plush leather chair. "Does your hand still hurt?" he asked in a quieter voice, concern coloring his tone.

Tamara raised her eyebrow in surprise, and flexed her gloved right hand awkwardly before she spoke. "It looks like I'll need a new brace for it." She answered, evading the question and trying to figure out his motives.

He shrugged, turning his gaze to the window. "I was just asking. It looks like you're uncomfortable in the brace. That's all really." he closed his eyes for a moment, licking his dry lips.

"I'm used to it, but I still don't like the idea of wearing a brace during the day as well as at night."

"Oh, how come?" he asked, his gaze back on her. He was curious now.

"Day braces get hot and uncomfortable from wearing them all day long, and the night brace immobilizes my hand and wrist in one position. The one you helped me put on yesterday was the one I use at night."

"Ah... I wish there was something that-" Kaiba couldn't finish the sentence. No, I will not fall for her! He told himself sharply in his mind.

"Like I said, I'm used to it." She replied calmly.

Kaiba's gaze swept over her clothes for a moment. "Wearing all black?" he questioned, glancing back into her eyes.

"Just like yesterday."

"Well, I know that! But why?" he said, rolling his eyes.

"Out of respect for my mother, it's only proper." She replied, thinking that would be damned before telling him the whole truth and kept eyes expressionless behind her glasses.

"Oh," he said, still confused on why she would do so. "You'd look better in color." he remarked.

She shrugged. "I really wouldn't notice." Turning her left wrist slightly, she glanced at her watch.

"I'll escort you outside and grab the contract for you." Kaiba said, standing up.

"Thank you. Did you get the e-mail I sent you? I tried to get it to you first thing this morning." She asked, turning her chair around sideways to look at him and still be ready to leave.

"Uh, email?" his eyes widened. "I haven't even looked at my e-mail today. I've been busy with the meeting."

"Oh." She said simply. "Never mind then, it was nothing really important."

"No, please tell me. I'd rather hear it from you now than reading it later." he prodded gently, smiling slightly.

"I was thinking that an annulment would be less stressful then being divorced. You won't get Fear Corp, but you'll be able to keep what is yours."

"The men at the meeting asked me to ask you, with more detail, what the annulment is. They said it'd be more of a hassle." He said, tapping a fingernail against the polished desktop.

Surprised, Tamara's eyes widened, but she answered him quickly enough, thinking that the e-mail she had sent this morning had actually gotten though. "An annulment legally makes a marriage null and void. Long story short, legally it will be as though we were never married at all. By the time we apply for the annulment, about three months minimum should do it I think, we should have been married for long enough as that point that the contracts devised by our fathers when we were younger should be void by then as well. So it won't really matter that there would be no record of our marriage in the legal system or elsewhere." It was clear as the young woman got her breath back that she had put a lot of thought into getting out of staying with him permanently given the detail of the explanation.

Kaiba narrowed his eyes. Something about her explanation was fishy and he didn't like it. "There's still one question," he said, raising his eyebrow questioningly at her "is there something that helps make the annulment more... Uh..." he couldn't find the words to express his thoughts.

Tamara raised a red-gold eyebrow, the movement somewhat encouraging as the woman waited for him to gather his wits. She wasn't about to put words in his mouth, so she kept her own shut.

He saw her arched eyebrow and he mentally sighed. He had a feeling he'd have to explain things more. "There's more to this than what you're telling me. Now what is the finer details of the annulment?" he demanded, slender fingers outstretched, wanting to hit something.

Seeing his fingers move, nearly thirteen years of instinct took over and she backed up fast, turning her chair back in order to face him and putting her back tires right up against the door. "I didn't think you'd be concerned about the grounds for the annulment. This 'marriage' will never be consummated, so the reasonable ground for annulment in this case would be to claim sexual inability to complete the marriage."

Completely stunned, Kaiba's eyes nearly rolled out of their sockets. Sexual inability! He swallowed and coughed. "I wasn't going to hurt you," he stated, hoping she'd understand. He saw that she was still nervous so he didn't push it. "All right, I'll go along with this annulment. But, to make things fair, we'll have to stay married for three months, as you said. And I'm assuming you'd like a big wedding as well?" he shifted in the chair, the leather warm against his legs.

The redhead didn't look at all relaxed and stayed exactly where she was. Her right hand had fisted up so tightly in reflex that it hurt. "Three months is the minimum, though we can apply for it after that at any time so long as I'm... untouched. No, I don't want a wedding at all. We both know that this will be a lie, so let's just go to the justice of the peace get it over with. I also don't want Mokuba to know we are married."

Kaiba sighed aloud, remembering his questioning little brother. But that left more questions and less answers for them. "No wedding?" Kaiba asked, looking up at her in surprise. He saw her nod and he frowned. "No big wedding, nothing at all? Just go in front of a judge?" he said, his voice incredulous.

"You have it exactly right." She agreed. "This isn't a marriage, just a business arrangement we were forced into. I see no reason to pretend otherwise."

Her coldness felt like a bucket of cold water and Kaiba made a face. He just wanted things to be easy but their fathers had to go off and make things difficult. As if they didn't have enough problems now. "All right, pick a date." Kaiba said, waving a hand 'round and glancing to the pile of paperwork awaiting him.

"Any time this week will do as long as it's not today. I have some errands to run before I leave next week for Duel Academy." Her face darkened unhappily at the last part. She did not add that they were also burying their mother today.

"Ah," he said, gazing at the work beside him. He had many things to do as well and he was about to add one more thing to the list. "I'll escort you around the area then. It's better than having Duke walking with you." Kaiba said; his eyebrow then rose as though expecting her to object to this.

Tamara shuddered. "Thank you. I was going to visit Duke's game shop later, but I was going to ask him to meet me somewhere else first so that he could should me how to get there. Maps and I don't get along..."

Against his will, Seto Kaiba had to laugh silently at that. He didn't get along with maps very much either, which was one thing that they had in common. "Well, I'll walk with you then. Personally, I dislike Duke but if you'd like to go to his shop, I'll be more than happy to take you there." he said, standing up and stretching his sore arms.

"I don't understand it, I suck at reading maps and street signs, but I can memorize the buildings that I pass along the way to get to where I need to be." She said, only now moving away from the door. "Would you happen to know where there is a public library by the apartment? I've already read both the books you gave me yesterday, and the rest of our stuff won't get here until after I've already left."

Kaiba thought for a moment. "I know where one is but I don't give very good directions... I would have to show you or you'd have to ask someone else." He slid closer to the door, his hand resting on the knob. Muttering to himself more than anything, he said, "I really hate maps. With all those curved lines and confusing colors..."

"Not to mention the small print that's hard to read." Tamara added. "If my brother gets it off Mapquest, I can muddle though it well enough, but he gets mad at me if I print too much." She shrugged. "Yugi and the others offered, but they are still in school right now..."

Amused now, Kaiba chuckled, shaking his head. "Yugi and the others are more likely to get you lost along the way. But you ought to ask my brother; he'll be more than happy to take you if you'd like."

"I don't want him around Duke. By the way, you might want to have a little chat with your brother about the birds and the bees as well as language use. He said some things about Duke that..." Her voice trailed off as she waited for him to open his door for her.

He pulled the door open and motioned for her to follow him. "I've talked to him about his language... As for the birds and the bees, I'd prefer not to go there myself." Kaiba shivered, rolled his eyes and almost chuckled remembering what Mokuba had said about Duke.

"Don't even think about dumping that task into my lap!" Tamara exclaimed as she drove though.

"Ha! As if! I'll get around to it." Kaiba snapped back, giving her one of his looks.

The redhead glared right back, hiding the fear that was making her little heart pound way too hard in her small frame. "Why don't I believe you? Don't forget about the contract."

"Ah, I can hear your heart pounding. Must mean you like me." Kaiba smirked, grinning and hoping it'd rub her the wrong way. "Doesn't matter if you believe me or not." he pointed out, shrugging his shoulders. He could really care less but he knew she knew that.

"I'm not that stupid, trust me. I trust you about as far as I can throw you, if not less, but you're help is better than nothing at all. I'm just thankful that mother will never meet you in this life or any other." She shot back, taking the stack of papers from one of the office girls and leafing though them, seemingly not caring in the least that the office girl was flirting with Kaiba as she put them in a bag hanging on the side for her chair.

Kaiba watched his redheaded bride intently. Did she even care that the girl was flirting with him? Oh well, time to see if it'd work on her too. "Oh, thank you… Uh, Mary, isn't it? " Kaiba said slyly, smirking before putting his arm around her shoulders. He was scoring points as she turned to look up at him, smile widely before giggling and whispering something. 'Score Kaiba 1, Tamara 0.' He thought and smirked again, dropping his voice before whispering, "Such a beauty," in her ear.

Tamara looked bored. "Better her than me." Shrugging, she headed towards the door, taking deep breaths to settle her nerves.

Kaiba's head jerked up and he watched her roll away. "Oh Kaiba!" the ditzy blonde said, tugging at his perfect tie, crumpling it. He pushed the blonde away before starting after Tamara. Did she really not care at all?

The redhead was muttering darkly to herself. "Thank the Goddess Jake's sending me to Dueling Academy, as much as I hate the idea... At least I won't have to watch him act like a pig while I have to remain faithful if only to be rid of him... Father may you burn in Tartarus for saddling me with the one male who seems to be the perfect mixture of you and your best friend. Mother... what can I do now?" She took a deep breath. "If I don't let him touch me physically or emotionally, I think I can manage what will be required of me… I'll bend, but I won't let him break me mother, I swear it!" She whispered as she exited the building as fast as she could.

Concerned, Kaiba had followed her out into the hallway quietly. He heard her muttering and cursing her father in his grave as he got closer and he had to smile at that. He did the same thing to his step-father. But, it was what she said. The promise she had given to her mother that she wouldn't break down and become a loving wife in truth. He, suddenly, wanted her to break down for him. To give in and love everything he was going to offer her.

Still growling quietly under her breath, Tamara reached into a side pocket and pulled out a small notebook and a map; nearsightedly narrowing her eyes as she tried to look at both of them as once. Her red-gold braid shining like woven fire in the sunlight. "I hope I can get Jake to take me to get my eyes checked before I leave for the Dueling school, I need new glasses again..." She muttered as she studied the map.

Kaiba raised his eyebrow. Maybe he could get her glasses and use them as a 'peace offering'. He was already going to be in deep crap if he got her the ring he wanted so he needed something to fall back on. He tapped his chin, thinking.

"Ah! There you are... okay, let's see..." She turned the map this way and that, frowning in concentration. "I might be able to do this..."

"Sure," Kaiba finally announced, the silence grating on his nerves for the first time. Tamara's head snapped up, and from here it looked like she was glaring at him. "Oh, sorry, were you having a moment with yourself?" sarcasm dripped from his every being. For some reason he was pissed off, again and he didn't like it.

"You can have some very interesting conversations that way." She answered tightly, glancing at the notebook and map one more time before putting them back in her side bag and drove down the sidewalk.

Kaiba glared. She had turned her back on him. He licked his lips. "I was talking to you." He growled out.

The redhead didn't even turn her head. "I know, I answered you. Now are you coming or not?"

'Urk!' Kaiba's hands shook with unspent energy. "Fine," he snapped out, glaring again.

Chuckling, Tamara continued on her way, slowing down her speed so he wouldn't have to eat her dust. "Uniforms first." she muttered as she kept an eye on the street signs.

"Whatever, could you go any faster?" he barked, shaking his head and looking away from the back of her chair.

Laughing, the redhead gunned her chair; quickly leaving him behind, although she did wait for him at the traffic light.

Kaiba's jaw dropped to the ground and he jogged to keep up with her. "Okay, okay. Let's go a bit slower. I may be fast but I haven't..." he stopped.

"Never argue with a wheelchair driver Mr. Kaiba." She said, for a moment, her humor was restored.

He rolled his eyes, stood by her side and they waited for the light to change. It felt strange, to be out and watched by everyone like this. But, it would be good for them in the long run.

They crossed the street, and Tamara remained silent until they got to the uniform shop. Sighing, her eyes darkened as she wrestled with the door.

"So we're back to Mr. Kaiba again, Tamara?" Kaiba commented, rolling his eyes, trying to pull her back out of her shell. He chuckled, smiling widely at her.

"I won't pretend that I am your friend, let alone your wife, in public unless the arrangement between us either gets out or we have to act like it for some reason." She said reasonably as she went up to the counter. "Ms. Tamara McFay." She gave the salesperson the name that she was using at the Academy. Jake had already arranged for the uniforms to be picked up, having already given his sister's measurements to the uniform place.

Kaiba nodded his head. He had to agree with her on that. "Wait," he said when he heard her give the salesperson something other than her real maiden name. "Why are you using-?"

"McFay was my mother's maiden name. By family custom, Jake uses father's name, and I use mother's. Though legally we both have our father's name, and Jake has to use it since he owns Fear Corp. However, I don't like my last name, so I use my mother's whenever I can get away with it. I haven't gotten around to having it legally changed yet now that we're back in Japan." She replied softly, watching as the salesperson disappeared in the back room.

"Ah," Kaiba said, glancing around, still a little irked about her using her mother's maiden name. 'Wait, we're not married yet and I'm already throwing a fuss?' he thought sourly, rolling his eyes at himself. He didn't like the fact that she wasn't willing to let him teach her, hadn't even asked him to help her with her dueling problems. 'Was it just her ego?' he asked himself, glancing down at her.

"Here you are!" The woman said happily. "I hope you have an interesting time at Duel Academy." As she spoke, she handed the neat pile of male Slifer Red uniforms to the redhead and accepted the money Tamara handed her.

"Woah! What's with the male uniforms?" Kaiba exclaimed, his eyes wide. He narrowed his eyes at her then the woman who scurried away from his fury.

"I sit in a wheelchair, so pants make more sense then skirts, more modest too." Tamara replied, not looking at him as she shifted the pile of clothing in her arms and put the change back in her purse.

"But… But… But!" Kaiba sounded like his younger brother in that moment and he glared at both Tamara and the thought of being compared to his younger brother. His eyes narrowed even farther… She was going to be going to Duel Academy, wearing pants from the male uniform. What else could go wrong!

"This has nothing to do with you." She snapped. "I will act as I see fit so long as my brother approves." Turning her head, she thanked the saleswoman and left the shop.

"Nothing. To. Do. With. Me?" Kaiba hissed, biting his lip. He couldn't figure out what to do first. He glared, hissing still. "And I am your husband, don't I get a say?"

Tamara looked around, grateful that the area wasn't too crowded and hoping that they wouldn't be overheard. "Only in name only will I be your wife. I'm eighteen years old; you are nineteen, until you turn twenty-one I will have time to find a way out of this. Even if we do get married, you will be my husband in name only. Even if we marry this week, no one will know of our marriage. You can do whatever you please while I'm at the Academy."

He chewed on his lower lip. He was so ready to strangle her smart ass right now that it wasn't funny. "I need this-" he stopped. He wanted to come out and say that he needed to marry her to keep his company, to be the top dog over everyone and maybe take over Fear Corp. "We may be married in name only, but we're still married." His excuse was lame, even he knew that, but he wasn't about to give up.

"And your point is?" Tamara said tightly. "I'm only marrying you for my brother's sake, though he swears to me that he'll sign Fear Corp over to you to set me free. No one at the Academy will know I am legally your wife; using mother's name will make sure of that. Don't worry about your reputation." She snapped bitterly.

"My reputation?" Kaiba repeated, confused for a moment. Was this more than simply signing their company over to him? Was it more? Even if it was (not that he would admit it), he wasn't about to let trivial things like love step in his way and knock him off his path. He wasn't this weak. "All right, fine then. I don't really care." he replied, waving his hand.

Carefully putting the uniforms in the plastic bag that had been provided, she tied it tightly and pulled out her map again. "Good." She looked over the map, struggling to remain calm and cold to him even though she would have loved to cry. "I wanted to make sure we understood each other before we began this game of mockery and ugly lies."

She was wrong; it wasn't about his reputation at all. He was slowly giving into his emotions and letting them rule. But, he wasn't about to let her know that. Did she really think that he cared for her so little? It was like she slapped him on the face and left a large, noticeable bruise (something he hated).

This wasn't a game of mockery and lies (or was it?). It was simply signing things over (man, it sounded cruel and cold even to his own ears). "All right, where to?" he replied, his voice icy. Could she really not see what she was doing to him? Was she ignoring it or was she blind? He reached over, plucked the bag from her lap and ignored her requests to give her uniforms back.

After a minute, Tamara gave in and let him carry the uniforms for her, but she kept an eye on him in distrust even as she replaced the map in her bag. "Duke's dice shop." She answered calmly. "Yugi told me on the phone last night that it's near his grandfather's card shop, so if we find one, the other should be near by." Smiling to herself, her dimples flashed slightly as she made to drive away from him.

Kaiba wanted to snicker at her. The look in her eyes was nothing more than pure disgust/distrust and it was making him laugh in his mind. "When did Yugi call last night?" He finally asked, the question annoying the hell out of him. "Ah, don't answer that. I know where his grandfather's game shop is so I'll lead you there. Duke's shop's near so after we're there, I'm not going in." Kaiba stated, looking down the street.

"Just don't lose my uniforms. At least nobody can get mad at me for visiting Duke's shop on my own. Yugi was even more firm about it than Mokuba or even my twin. He actually made me give him the address that Duke had given me to make sure that it was the right one." Tamara shrugged it off. "I don't mind the brother fussing they do, but I know how to defend myself if he tries anything."

"Okay..." Kaiba's voice trailed off. "I won't lose your precious uniforms; they're quite safe in my hands. Have some trust would you?" he finished, glancing across the street. He thought he heard her sigh but he ignored it.

"It's hard to trust somebody who has ignored you for eleven years then suddenly shows up and all but demands your hand in marriage." Tamara snapped quietly, but without heat.

Now Kaiba swallowed, she did have a point, a very serious point. But it wasn't like he _liked_ the idea of asking for her hand in marriage. The only reason that he was going though with this boiled down to the simple fact that he needed her hand in marriage to save his ass and company. He may have enjoyed toying and using people but this was one young lady he didn't want to piss off (along with her brother). And secretly, he wanted to control Fear Corp. "I have my reasons for ignoring people," Kaiba finally settled on saying, glancing over his shoulder in a cold manner.

"And so do my brother and I Kaiba. The only reason I'm doing this as fast as I am is to keep your trap shut while I'm at the academy. We'll be married this week and won't see each other again until this damn thing is annulled." If anything, the redhead was even colder than the elder Kaiba brother.

Kaiba's mouth fell open. He felt insulted, disgusted and suddenly really pissed off for some reason. His blood was boiling as he kept his gaze level with hers.

Tamara shrugged, but kept her eyes on where she was going. "I don't want anything from you while we are married; I'm not a money-grabbing bitch. You can have whatever... relationships... you see fit unless for some reason word gets out about this and we need to act like we are lovebirds." She made a face. "I hope by all I hold holy that doesn't happen."

"All right then. I can live with that. Although the relationships thing, won't happen." he said, rolling his eyes and sticking a hand on his bony hip. "And I seriously doubt, unless you spill to someone, will find out about this." he said.

"Trust me." She said tightly. "I would have nothing to gain and everything to loose if they find out our connection at the Academy."

"Excuse me, nothing to gain? What would happen if they did find out that you are indeed married to me over at the Academy?" he practically shouted, whirling around and his large hand falling on her shoulder. He glared down at her, breathing heavy a bit.

"Among other things, they would put me in Obelisk Blue; not because I've earned that place, but because of my connection to you. I don't want that. If I move up, I want to earn that place using only my own skills and abilities, not because of you or my brother's money." Tamara replied truthfully, trying to back away from him to avoid a scene in public. "Therefore, I'm keeping my mouth shut about this whole fiasco."

"All right then," he forced through his teeth. He could prevent her from being moved up there unless she earned it but he didn't want her to know anything about that. He backed off, catching the eyes of innocent bystanders.

Tamara took a deep breath and turned away from him, color returning to her cheeks again. Without a word, she continued on her way, wanting to lose him in the crowd, uniforms or no. He had scared her, and she didn't think she could trust his temper.

Kaiba's hands were shaking as he watched her roll off into the crowd. He hated letting his temper get the best of him. He tightened his hand around the bag and turned his back on her. He needed to do something, other than being out here with her, in public, and letting everyone witness his display of misplaced temper. He took a deep breath and shook his head. He glanced down at his hands, disgusted with how they were still trembling.

She made her way to the dice shop without too much trouble, though she did get lost about three times. Duke greeted her with an oily smile and put his arm around her shoulders as he showed her around the shop.

Kaiba stopped a few feet ahead, remembering the uniforms he currently held. He cursed his luck and stumbled through the crowd, ignoring anyone he stepped on in the process. He was almost out of breath when he reached the dice shop.

Duke was bending down to show her something. Although Kaiba couldn't hear what was being said, Tamara was frowning slightly and appeared to be paying very close attention to Duke, pointing at different rows of dice and asking questions.

Fighting back a kind of jealous rage, Kaiba bit his lip when he saw Duke leaning over like that. He didn't like her asking him or talking to him like that. He kept watching outside, refusing to go inside (fearing he might start a fight maybe). He saw Duke raise his hand slightly and his eyes caught the curve where he was heading. Now his blood was really boiling. He pushed his way through the crowd again, flung the door open and growled out, "Get your hands off of her!"


	8. Rings, funerals, and fights

Author's Note: Sorry about the shift in the chapters everyone, but the file for chapter seven turned out to be too long, so I decided to go back and split the chapter up so that the parts that somehow got cut out got put back in. I also wrote the song '_Fly Away_' that is used in this chapter in case anyone was wondering. Thanks again to Zeo-Chan for all of her help with this chapter.

* * *

The redhead jumped as though she had been shot and it was only that fact that she was wearing her seatbelt that she remained in the chair. Duke glared at Kaiba. "What's your problem pal? Are you jealous that she wants to learn more about Dungeon Dice Monsters instead of your duel monsters?"

"Oh, it's not about her wanting you to teach more about Dungeon Dice you idiot." Kaiba snapped, glaring. His fist was clenched at his side as he watched the two.

Tamara was now looking back and forth between the two of them, and carefully got out of the verbal line of fire. "It's okay Duke, I'll take the instruction book that you were showing me and go from there."

In answer the emerald eyed man smiled at her. "It's no trouble showing you around Tamara. Please, at least let me give you my e-mail, just in case you have any questions..."

Kaiba was still growling as Duke told her to email him if she had any questions. His hands were aching with the need to kill something (Duke) and he wasn't about to leave without killing something (Duke). "Let's go, Tamara," Kaiba ground out, crossing the distance between them and laid his hands on her shoulders and glared at Duke, hoping that the icy gaze would convey his death promise.

Sighing, the redhead took out a smaller notebook, scribbled something on it then tore out the paper. Handing it to Duke, she nodded and murmured something to him before following Set Kaiba out.

Duke met Kaiba's gaze, but turned when Tamara handed him the paper and smiled at her before going into the back room when one of his cheerleaders called him.

Kaiba leaned down, hoping to catch what was on the paper but he couldn't see anything. He looked up to meet Duke's challenging gaze and he frowned. "What did you give him?" Kaiba asked, his curiosity getting the better of him as he stormed out through the door with Tamara behind him.

"My school e-mail address." She replied, glaring at him. "Goddess, I thought my brother's bodyguards were bad when he used to sick them on me, but you take these things to a whole new level. If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were jealous and actually courting me."

By the time she had finished speaking; Kaiba's mouth had practically hit the concrete. "That is… is absurd!" he stuttered, taking a deep breath and opened his mouth again. "I was simply telling him to stop before he got ready to grope you. Is that what you wanted from him?" Kaiba snapped, not really caring for the answer she might give. "Trust me, I wouldn't..." he froze again.

"Grope me? What are you talking about? Any one of his cheerleaders' will be clearly far more attractive and loyal to him then I am. Besides, I don't have enough for him to get a hold of in the first place. Besides, I do know how to hit him and where!" She looked more frustrated than angry now. "I may be in a wheelchair, but I can handle unwanted attentions on my own! Besides, you aren't interested in me that way, remember? If I want to pursue a romance, then that is my right. You are already getting what you want."

Kaiba all but growled again. She was pushing his buttons and pushing him over the edge. How long was he going to be tortured like this? His hands shook again.

"As long as I remain a virgin, it doesn't matter to my brother what I do." She shrugged and brushed past him, frowning. "Damn... I have the feeling I'm forgetting to tell you something, but for the life of me..." She muttered to herself.

Now Kaiba ignored her, trying to keep his temper in check. He took a deep breath, "Are you still wanting to go to Yugi's shop then?" he pointed across the street.

Tamara thought for a minute, before she slowly shook her head. "Not right now, Mr. Kaiba. Oh! I remember now." She reached into the side packet and handed him a small ring box. "I found this while going though my things last night, I figured that you could use it when we got married as my wedding ring." Inside the box was an old looking simple silver ring with a light blue stone that matched her eyes.

Curious now, Kaiba gently took the box from her outstretched hand. He glanced down at it and smiled sadly. He wanted her to wear his ring (gold, with a sapphire surrounded by diamonds) and here she was, offering him this ring to use as her wedding ring. He sighed and handed the box back to her. "It's up to you if you want to use this instead; I'm not going to be picky about rings."

In answer, Tamara smiled sadly. "I'm very hard to buy rings for. This was one of my mother's rings, but it's still too big for me. My ring finger is a four and a half, mother was a five."

"Hmmm..." Kaiba said, thinking, still holding the box in his hand. "How about this: We go to the ring store, have a copy of the ring made, in your size of course, and you can hang onto this and save it for something else. Will that work?" Kaiba asked, trying to make up for earlier.

Slowly, she nodded. "Yes. Thank you very much Mr. Kaiba. What about you? Did you want a real ring as well?"

Kaiba chuckled, "Back to Mr. Kaiba yet again are we? I'm fine, I don't need a ring. I'll be fine without one," he said, nodding his head. "We can go this afternoon if you'd prefer," he said, glancing at his watch.

"Yes please. Jake will call me if something comes up. I think that you should get a ring too, if only for the justice of the peace, you don't have to wear it after."

Uninterested, Kaiba nodded, agreeing with her so as to keep the fragile peace that was slowly growing between them. "All right, I'll get the ring. I suppose, just to be nice, I'll let you choose my ring." he smirked, before hurriedly looking away from her.

Tamara raised an eyebrow, before a slow smile spread across her face. "If you are sure..." She slid up to his side. "Any place in mind?"

Kaiba knew she had something wicked in mind but he really didn't care at the moment. "You choose the place, not picky remember." he said, smiling and looking across the road.

"I'm new here remember Mr. Kaiba? Besides, I don't get jewelry much, at least, not for myself." She said modestly.

"Oh yeah," Kaiba nodded, "Hmmm... How about we go to one of the smaller shops around here, deal?" he said, cocking his head sideways to glance down at her. "And maybe you can pick out more than the ring if you'd like." he offered, still trying to make up for earlier.

"Cool. I need to make up for not having a birthday present for Jake. He says he didn't care, but I still feel bad." For the first time, Tamara gave him her special smile, which made her dimples flash and her face light up as well as her eyes.

Kaiba laughed at this. "All right then," He liked seeing her smile like that. He felt himself grow slightly hot and he smiled even wider. "Well, let's go!" he announced, shaking his head with the grin still on his face.

Tamara's smile faded and she looked thoughtful again. "May I ask you a question?"

"Hmm? Sure, go ahead." Kaiba said, his eyebrow was now raised questioningly.

"Are you absolutely set on having the agreement annulled at the three month mark?" She asked, sounding serious again, and not playful like she had been before.

"We don't have to have it annulled at three months if you don't want to. Like I said, I'm not picky today." he stated, shrugging his thin shoulders. "What's with the serious question all of a sudden?"

"Because I was just mentally going though the academy schedule, and I won't be able to come back until Christmas break unless Jake needs me for something." She said seriously.

"Ah, that's all right then. If you'd like to wait until then, then I'm fine with it." Kaiba said. "Well, I don't think there's anything that requires both of us so you should be fine on that." he thought out loud, a finger resting on his chin.

Tamara's face brightened. "Good, I don't like tangles, and Jake gives me more than enough of them to handle."

Kaiba laughed again. "Oh, and what does Jake have you do exactly?" he poked at her.

"I do absolutely anything and everything that he can do or just doesn't want to do. Mostly though, I handle the behind the scenes stuff unless Jake wants me at a party." She smiled cheerfully. "He owns the company; I just help, though he keeps trying to legally give it to me. He's not really a business person."

Ah," Kaiba mumbled, nodding. "So you don't go to many parties then? Or does he like going to those?" Kaiba joked, smiling. "So how come you won't accept the company from him?"

"He can't do that legally remember? My dad's side is a bunch of male chauvinistic pigs. And no, we both hate parties, but I'm better at dealing with people than he is."

"Oh yeah," Kaiba finally did remember. "It wouldn't seem that he dislikes parties, and dealing with people." Kaiba spoke, shaking his head. He understood that perfectly.

"Well, I don't really like it either, but I've learned to accept it cause of my disability." She replied, shrugging and looking solemn now. "I like books better than people."

"Oh, I know that feeling well, except in my case I prefer the company of my computer and silent room, and my little brother of course." Kaiba joked, but his tone still gave away he was serious. He looked away from her, keeping his head turned in the other direction. "But I don't understand why you need to accept it with your disability," he shrugged, running his slender fingers through his hair and squinted against the bright sunlight.

Tamara shrugged. There are a lot of things that I have a hard time doing myself, so I would have to ask somebody to help me." Her voice was almost too level, for this was a rather personal subject for her.

"Ah," Kaiba mumbled again, unsure what to say. He was too proud of a person to ask for help from people, especially if it concerned the bathroom. "Well, that must've been a good way to get rid of any fear or nervousness," Kaiba's own joke was lame and he mentally rolled his eyes at himself.

"I just shut it out and suck it up." She replied calmly. "Don't worry; I won't embarrass you by asking for that kind of help once the arrangement is made Mr. Kaiba."

Kaiba pushed open the door to the ring shop. "Hmmm... All right, if you say so," he said, winking at her, hoping to worm a giggle out of her. "But really, please call me Seto instead of Mr. Kaiba."

The redhead gave him an odd look. "The only one you allow to call you by your first name is your brother."

"Unless I ask that you call me that." Kaiba pointed out.

She sighed. "All right then... Seto." She gave a small shy smile.

Kaiba smiled, before he turned his gaze to the salesperson who stepped out from the back. "Thank you, Tamara," He said softly, smiling towards the woman.

"For what?" She asked as they arrived to the jewelry store and entered.

"Eh," was all Kaiba said, pushing open the door and entering, then turned around to hold it open for her. "Hello," He greeted the woman with another dazzling smile and walked up to the glass counter.

Tamara looked around the shop quietly, as the saleswoman paid Kaiba all the consideration.

"We are looking for a ring," Kaiba said, giving a funny look then glanced back at Tamara. "Actually, maybe if you ask her, she can give you a better idea of what we're looking for." Kaiba smiled widely, pointing in Tamara's direction.

However, the redhead in question hadn't heard a word that Seto had said because she had stopped and was looking in a case. "May I please see this ring ma'am?" She asked politely, rolling back carefully as she spoke. Nodding, the saleswoman flashed another smile at Kaiba, but filled Tamara's request. The ring that had caught Tamara's attention was a simple silver ring that held a ruby teardrop in the center.

Kaiba looked over her shoulder, smiling. The ring she chose was simply beautiful. He laid a careful hand on her shoulder then leaned down. "Beautiful," He said, his face soft for the first time.

"Praise the Goddess, a perfect ring that symbolizes who I really serve while also being subtle for our purposes without raising undue comment. It even matches my uniforms." She said as she stared at the ring, seemingly not hearing or noticing Kaiba was beside her.

Watching her in silence, Kaiba cocked his head sideways. Was she talking to herself? He chuckled and tapped her on the shoulder. "All right, it matches your uniforms. Have you seen any others you like?"

There was a reverent light in her face as she slowly slid the ring on her hand. She jumped when he touched her and seemed to come back to herself. "Do we need an engagement ring too?" She asked in a quiet voice so the saleslady couldn't hear.

Not really caring, Kaiba only shrugged. "It's up to you," he said, leaving the matter open for her to decide what she wanted to do. "But, I have to say that the ring looks good. Is it the right size for you, or will the ring need to be resized for you?" he asked, looking down at her hand.

"It's too big, so I'll need it resized." She said, reluctantly taking the ring off her hand, and inspecting it carefully. "I think it'll be okay though after it is fixed." Slowly, she put the ring in his hand. "Don't loose this Seto Kaiba; I won't be happy if you do." Her voice was soft, but it was clear she was giving him an order.

He laughed at this. "Yes ma'am." he felt the urge to salute her but he restrained himself. He turned to the saleswoman, "We'll need this resized but we'll continue looking at the rest of the rings." he reached across the counter to hand it to the woman.

"What size sir?" She asked with a smile.

"A four and a half ma'am," he replied.

"All right, are you looking for something as well?"

Kaiba glanced down at Tamara again. "Ask the lady, she's the shopper today." his voice was playful as he wrapped a now loose lock of hair around his index finger.

Tamara looked surprised at his seemingly genuine gesture of affection, but covered it fast as she opened her hand another to reveal another ring, this one was plain and looked to be made of fine silver wire.

He glanced down. "This one?" he asked, trying to keep from showing his true thoughts about it.

"This one is also for me. Silver is for females, gold is for males." She replied calmly.

"And have you thought about the ring that you would like me to wear?" He asked, absently continuing to play with her hair, curious as to what her opinion would be.

She thought for a long moment, considering it seriously. "I was thinking along the lines of a simple gold band, maybe with a sapphire stone in it. It's up to you. Would you mind not doing that? It looks as though you are trying to turn my own hair into a wedding ring." Tamara answered, absently trying to rescue the lock of hair between his fingers.

Kaiba jerked his finger from the lock of hair, letting it fall down to her shoulder. His face flamed at her comment. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked to the door that the woman disappeared through.

Tamara smirked and she tucked the offending lock behind her small bare ear. "My hair's a mess... I'm going to have to do something with it before Jake calls..." she murmured to herself. "I'd cut it all off if Jake let me..."

The elder Kaiba brother's eyes went wide when she said that. "Why?" he asked, locking his hand around the end of the braid and hanging onto it as much as he could without pulling her hair.

"I want to get it cut because that way I could take care of it myself without relying on my brother's help. He's not going to like it, but I'm going to have to get it cut before I leave. Both of our brothers love my hair, though why that is I have no idea." She shrugged nonchalantly. "Personally, I'm not too attached to my hair, though everyone else seems to think my hair is by far my best feature."

Kaiba smiled sadly. Maybe they loved her hair because they couldn't find something else to love about her. He picked up the stray lock again and wrapped it back around his finger and went back to stroking it. "It is one of your best features, but not the only one." Kaiba said softly, lost in his thoughts.

"You are going to be using my hair as a leash aren't you?" she muttered, telling her heart to stop skipping beats.

"A leash? Oh no, I just enjoy messing with it. But if you insist, then I shall." Kaiba joked, smiling and noticed the woman slip back into the room. "Would you mind resizing this ring she has as well?" He politely asked the woman.

The saleslady smiled brightly at Kaiba and nodded, putting something on the counter in front of them. "Here we are! Would one of these do?" She asked, opening a small case. The case contained several rings, including a plain gold ring, a gold band with a sapphire teardrop, and a gold ring that held a sapphire surrounded by smaller blue stones the exact shade of a blue-eyes white dragon.

Kaiba looked at the three rings being held out for their inspection. He glanced back at Tamara, mentally wishing she would go for the ring with the sapphire on it. He glanced back to the ring again, wondering if his face was giving away what he was thinking.

Tamara gave the plain silver ring to the saleswoman. "Go ahead and pick Seto, you're the one who has to wear it, not me."

Feeling oddly touched by her offer, Kaiba smiled and his eyes fell on the third ring. He gingerly touched it for a moment before plucking it from the box and sliding it onto his ring finger. It slid on without a problem and it glittered in the store lights. "Almost like..." his voice trailed off. 'Almost like a Blue Eyes White Dragon…' he thought, still staring at it.

She just hid a smile, thanking her Goddess that the rings were just for show.

Kaiba nodded, slid the ring off his finger and put it back into the box. "I'll take this one," He said, giving it back to the woman. "But, I really need to get something for Mokuba. I might have to go to the games store to keep him quiet." Kaiba thought out loud. His eyes swept back over the counters. His younger brother wasn't one for jewelry. His eyes landed on a simple diamond ring. He moved towards it, motioned for the woman to go over to him and tapped the display case. "This one as well, please." He said.

Still smiling, the redhead found another ring, the twin to her first choice, but with a gold band instead of silver. "May I have this ring too in a size seven?" She asked after the lady complied with Kaiba's request.

You could almost hear the cash register ringing up in her mind as the saleslady complied with each of them.

Unconcerned, Kaiba's eyes fluttered over each price tag. It would be an awfully expensive day but he didn't mind. It would be worth the price for this shopping trip. He took the ring the woman handed him; this one was a perfect fit as well.

"Well, I'm set. Three is more than enough for me. What about you Seto?" Tamara asked.

He was still admiring the rings. He wanted both, but wondered if he really wanted the two. 'Oh, what the heck I'll get them both.' He thought, before he looked over at her. "Add her rings onto my bill as well." he commanded the woman, picking up the box and put the ring back inside.

Tamara's mouth dropped open slightly when she heard the price. "I can..." She started to say faintly, not wanting him to think she was a big money spender.

Now that he was feeling generous while in a rare good mood, Kaiba only waved his hand good-maturely and ignored her. "Put hers on my bill," he said again, looking straight into her eyes and hoped she wouldn't put up a huge fight.

She sighed and looked away. "As you wish."

Kaiba laughed and looked back at the register. The rings were going to cost quite a bit. He reached into his back pocket to pull out his wallet.

Suddenly, the sound of Mozart filled the room as Tamara's cell phone rang. "Excuse me." She said, quickly leaving the shop to answer her call.

He rolled his eyes but he didn't follow her outside. "Uh," the woman at the register mumbled. He turned his attention back to the bill. He pulled out a credit card, let the woman swipe it, and signed the bill. Carrying the bag of rings out, he tucked the wallet into his shirt pocket and stepped outside, a couple feet away from Tamara.

"Yes, yes, I understand. Do I have time to drop off my uniforms and fix my hair before I meet you at the cemetery? Huh? Oh, okay. Yes, I'll get the directions and call you when I get there so I can find you. Were you...? Okay, you're getting the roses? Fine. I'll see you there." The redhead looked sad as she slowly closed her phone.

Kaiba cocked his head sideways. Cemetery? Roses? What was she talking about? "Is everything all right?" He asked Tamara, staying the couple feet away from her.

She swallowed. "Mother is here."

Confused, Kaiba nodded, trying to understand what she meant by that. "All right," he said, finally unsure on what to say. "Is there anywhere else you would like to go?"

"I need to go back to the apartment to drop off my things and get directions." She managed a tired smile. "If you need to go back to work, I can manage Seto..."

He shook his head no. "No, I'm fine. I'll go with you." he waved his hands around. "Besides, Mokuba knows what to do if something comes up. I'll go with you."

"All right. Do you want me to carry the rings for you?"

"I'm fine, I'll carry them." he said, stepping up next to her and laying a hand on her shoulder. "Are you ready to go then?" he asked.

"Yes. I'm ready." She said quietly, waiting for him to take the lead.

In silence, Kaiba pushed ahead, hearing her follow quietly. He was a little shaken. It was like she suddenly went lifeless right before his eyes. He bit the corner of his bottom lip, trying to think of something to cheer her up.

"Where is your step-father buried?" She asked quietly, but looking straight ahead as she spoke.

Kaiba was silent on that. Seto did know but he didn't want to answer that question. He still had fresh scars that came to life whenever his stepfather was mentioned. "I have no honest idea," he finally replied, lying.

"All right." She replied.

"I don't mean to be rude, but I dislike talking or even thinking about him." Kaiba said, looking over his shoulder at her.

"I know, but you need to face it sometime. I won't ask again but... Did he ever say anything about me at all when you were growing up? I know father used to send him letters..."

"Yeah, Mokuba would be happy, reading those letters when he wasn't supposed to. And yes, I know I need to face it sometime but not today. But I was mainly always kept busy with training so whatever was said to me was probably ignored." he replied, cracking his knuckles to release some stress.

Tamara paled. "Oh no... Dearest Vesta, Goddess of virgins no..." She whispered, horrified.

Kaiba gave her a strange look. "What?"

"Father's language and the topics..." She shuddered. "Never mind."

Deciding not to press for details at the moment, Kaiba shrugged his shoulders. "After he would read those letters, he and our stepfather would often get into arguments over it. It was like World War Three with those two. Our stepfather never raised a hand to Mokuba but it was still bad." Kaiba remembered.

The redhead flinched, looking as though she's been struck, and tears filled her eyes behind her tinted glasses. "Oh Mokuba... I'm so sorry... I didn't know; oh Vesta… I tried so hard…" The words were spoken so softly that he almost couldn't hear them. In a louder voice she said "Kaiba, I know very well that words can cut the soul as bad as any knife, if not worse. Do you know if he still has those letters?"

Kaiba thought for a moment. "He doesn't have them, but I still do. They've been sitting in a folder for years now. I haven't thrown anything out." He crossed the street, brushing people that he didn't know. "I can find the letters if you'd like, after we go back to your apartment. Or I can leave them for later and give them to you if you really want them." he said.

"I want them destroyed. Don't read them, please don't read them..." She said quietly, her heart in her voice. "You really don't want to know what was in them."

"All right," Kaiba said slowly, his curiosity reached yet another peak. "I'll destroy them tonight then." he said, making a mental note to keep one or two aside so he could see what she was talking about.

You could visibly see the tension flowing out of her body, and she even managed a small smile. "Thank you."

He nodded, looking the other way. "Okay, what do we have to do again?" he asked, chuckling.

"We have to go back to the apartment." She reminded him. "I hope you know where we are, because I don't have a clue."

Kaiba laughed, before he suddenly stopped. 'Oh man, this may be a challenge.' He looked back at Tamara. "Of course I know where we are!"

Tamara waited calmly, though she kept an eye on the uniforms and rings he was carrying.

Embarrassed, Kaiba bit his lip. "I don't think I know where we are…" he finally admitted, looking over his shoulder and giving a sheepish smile.

Smiling back, she pulled out that map again, squinting as she hummed to herself.

Kaiba still gave the sheepish smile and walked back to her side and looked at the map as well. He hated being shown up like this but today he couldn't care.

"Okay... I think we turn right at the next light and go up three streets..." She said slowly, frowning in concentration.

He titled his head sideways, trying to figure out where she was at. "Er, maybe I ought to call for my driver?" he suggested, smiling.

"That would be a waste of time, considering my chair." She said. "I think I've got it..."

"Oh yeah, duh." he chuckled again. "But you never know," he tried again, suddenly tired of walking. Sitting for hours in front of a computer wasn't good for him.

"You are lucky that you can walk on your own." She said, putting the map away and starting forward again.

"Yeah, lucky. But can't you still use your crutches to walk sometimes?" he asked.

"How did you know about my crutches?" She demanded, screeching to a halt.

"Er," he stuttered, his face red. "Mokuba."

"Drat that boy! I told him to leave you be! Although I understand how he loves the idea of us marrying... Grr!" She shook her head. A little while later, they could see the apartment building.

Kaiba was confused now. "Uh..." he stumbled over what he wanted to say. "This is a first." he wound up saying, chuckling to himself as he looked at the apartment building in the distance.

The redhead's face was dark now as she rolled beside him and opened the door for him when they reached the building a few minutes later. "I'll talk to him; you have my word on that Mr. Kaiba." There was tightly controlled anger in Tamara's voice now.

All right," he cautiously said, giving a funny look. "He should be home when we get back to the mansion," he said, glancing back down at his watch. "Well, I take that back. He's going to be a friend's house for a while." Kaiba shook his head, smiling.

"I'll talk to him tonight over the phone." She agreed, hitting the button for the elevator.

Kaiba glanced up the hallways, seeing several young girls coming their way. They looked up, caught his gaze as he slid his arm onto Tamara's. They turned away, their gazes hard.

A smirk curved Tamara's lips when the elevator came and they went into it. However, once the door shut, she couldn't help but laugh, The odd gasping sounds she made as she laughed sounded loud in the small space. "Oh... wow..." She finally gasped out. "Goddess be thanked..."

Watching her, Kaiba laughed as well. It was funny, watching those girls react that way to what he did.

"If only the dunderheads that used to torment me in high school could have seen that." She exclaimed as she took off her glasses and wiped her eyes.

"Dunderheads?" Kaiba was confused, but he still laughed.

"The popular girls, cheerleaders and the like, I always called them dunderheads." The redhead explained as she replaced her glasses on her face.

"Ah, now I get it." Kaiba laughed again, smirking widely.

When they got to the third floor, she exited it, having disengaged herself from Kaiba and drove down the hallway in silence.

Kaiba followed a short distance behind, waiting for her to show him to the apartment.

Tamara stopped at the door before undoing the top two buttons of her shirt as she took off a chain from around her neck and unlocked the door for them. The door open, she refastened the chain and went inside, ignoring the key hanging freely between her small breasts.

Silently Kaiba followed her into the small room, his tall frame towering over her (and giving minute glimpses of her breasts). He shut the door behind them, letting his eyes adjust to the room.

Wordlessly, Tamara took the uniforms from him and disappeared down the hall toward her bedroom after gesturing him to take a seat wherever he pleased.

Kaiba sat down on the arm of a couch, waiting. He could faintly hear her in her room. He rose to his feet again, curious. What did their apartment look like now since he left yesterday? He slowly moved towards her room.

The apartment was still rather plain, and there weren't a lot of things scattered about. An open, well-worn copy of Shakespeare's _Romeo and Juliet_ lay facedown on the coffee table with a notebook beside it in Tamara's handwriting. Tamara's duel academy laptop was on the kitchen table next to an open box. As he traveled down the bare hall, only the bathroom and the door to the room Jake had claimed as his office stood open. Unlike yesterday, Tamara's door was now firmly shut, though he could hear her moving around from within.

Bored, Kaiba glanced down the bare hallway. It seemed so lifeless, so incomplete (just like him). He glared at the closed door, pondering a way to open it (for what if she hurt herself by accident while inside?) without her knowing. But nothing came to mind.

A few muttered curses were heard on the other side of the door, before there was silence again. A few minutes that the door unlocked and Tamara opened the door again. She was dressed in a full length simple black velvet dress, and her hair flowed freely like careless molten fire down the back of her wheelchair. When she saw him standing there, she cocked her head slightly at him as though asking "Well?" The redhead wore absolutely no jewelry at all.

Kaiba bit his lips. He'd rather see her with something adorning her neck, or wrist at least. He let out a sigh. "Why don't you wear something nice? One of the rings, maybe?" he politely asked, hoping she would say yes.

Tamara flipped part of her hair over her shoulder. "Later I will, but not for this." She replied turning sideways and pulling on the rope that had been tied to the doorknob after everyone had left so that the redhead could shut her own door before heading to the living room.

"All right," he said, waiting. He followed her into the dull room, glancing around, nervous. "Er, nice place you two have here." he said, snagging a strand of her hair again and twirling it around his finger.

"It'll do for now. There was no sense in getting a house right off the bat." She replied, picking up the black gloves that were in her lap and carefully putting them on. "Would you like me to cut off that lock of hair for you as you seem awfully fond of it Mr. Kaiba?" Tamara asked in a detached tone of voice.

"Ah, no thank you." Kaiba let go of the hair. She was back to calling him Mr. again and it grated his nerves. "Do you have everything then?" he asked, glancing the other way.

"Let me just nip into Jake's office and print those damn directions." She replied, tucking the lock behind her ear and starting to turn around. A few minutes later they were out the door, Tamara looked solemn and sad as she drove her chair down the street.

The long walk between them was in complete silence, as Kaiba's wife seemed draw into herself even more than she had been before. To Kaiba, it looked like she was steeling herself for an event that threatened to tear her apart, something that she was determined not to share with him.

When they finally reached the cemetery, a solemn-faced but still sorrowful Jake was waiting for them at the entrance. He was carrying a dozen red and pink roses. His eyes narrowed in distaste when he saw Kaiba was with Tamara, but other than that, all of his attention was on Tamara.

"Jake," Kaiba said, trying to remain polite to her brother. His eyes glanced over the roses her brother held and he sucked in a breath. "I'll stay out here. It'd be better to let you two go alone," Kaiba already struck up a pose with the nearest light post, looking away from their eyes and hoping his discomfort wouldn't show in his gaze.

Jake nodded curtly and handed the roses to his sister before putting his arm around both her shoulders and leading her away. His head bent down slightly towards his twin, and he was speaking quietly for only his twin's ears. For her part, Tamara seemed to be drawing strength from him, and automatically seemed to adjust her speed to his stride. The close-knit twins were completely welcoming of each other's presence and freely offered support without any discussion between them.

Kaiba huffed, watched the two walk away towards the graves. His heart thumped. This was the same place where his stepfather was buried. He looked away, and leaned against the light post once more. He felt jealous all of a sudden about the twins' closeness and he felt the leap in his mind. Would he and Tamara eventually become that close? Or will he be considered a fly on her wall for a while. His brows knitted downwards, and he ignored the vibrating cell phone in his pants.

It seemed like forever, but suddenly her heard Tamara's voice raised sadly in song:

_Fly Away, Fly away_

_Let your soul soar free_

_Your chains are now broken_

_Don't worry, you are free_

_Let your body rest_

_Safely in our Mother Earth_

_While your soul flies away_

_To the places you had longed to see_

_Fly Away, Fly away_

_Let your soul soar free_

_Your chains are now broken_

_Don't worry, you are free_

_The chains are cast away_

_Now shattered far asunder_

_Have no worries or concerns_

_And do not fear for me_

_Fly Away, Fly away_

_Let your soul soar free_

_Your chains are now broken_

_Don't worry, you are free_

_We will carry on your hopes_

_With your light and dreams to guide us_

_As we spread our growing wings_

_Please, just be happy wherever you may be_

_Fly Away, Fly away_

_Let your soul soar free_

_Your chains are now broken_

_Don't worry, you are free_

_(Repeat 3x, fading on last repeat)_

Kaiba cocked his head sideways. Was that her singing? She was good if it was. He smiled to himself and reached into his still buzzing pocket for his cell phone. Mokuba's name flashed on the Missed Calls list and he shut it again. Mokuba could wait another minute as he stood there listening to her sing.

All too soon, her voice faded into silence, and a few minutes later the twins came into view again. Both of their faces stained with tears and talking quietly to each other.

Feeling embarrassed, Kaiba turned his gaze away from them. It was too personal to watch the exchange in public.

The mood was broken when Jake's cell phone rang. Although Jake's hand seemed automatically to go for his phone, Tamara somehow managed a watery smile and answered the unspoken question in her big brother's worried gaze. "Go ahead Jake, I'll be okay and I'll save you some dinner when you come home."

In answer, Jake kissed her gently on the forehead and strode away, muttering to himself as he answered his phone. His sister sighed and came over to Seto. "Thank you for waiting, you didn't have to do that."

"Don't worry about it," he ground out, keeping his eyes off her. He was trying to decide whether to go see the bastard who hurt him and Mokuba but he wasn't sure if he was ready for that just yet. "You asked earlier, about where my stepfather was buried," Kaiba managed to force out, his eyes betraying him and straying over to the cemetery. His chin jerked upwards a centimeter before he closed his eyes, trying to ward off a headache.

"Ah. I wondered. Someone had made arrangements for mother a long time ago, and we didn't know who. Now I know." She said simply. As she spoke, she turned back the way she had come.

Surprised as his mind sorted though what she had just said as well as the possible implications of what that could mean, Kaiba jerked his eyes back to her and stepped in front of her in order to stare into her tear-stained face as his body went hot and cold alternately. He could not believe what he had just heard. All of the warmth that had been slowly kindling throughout the morning vanished in an instant. "My step-father wouldn't have done that for your mother, regardless of what you might think Ms. Fear. " He ground out coldly. "If you were to offer me proof; then I would, of course, reconsider my words." An icy smile settled on his lips as he carefully brushed her hair away from her face before taking her weaker hand in a tight grip. "I'll walk you back home, and then I need to go. After all I can't have you getting lost before I marry you to save my company." With that cold statement, he near dragged her alongside him, never once letting go of her limp hand.

Once he saw her back to her apartment, he went inside with her, walked over to where he had left their rings on the couch and sorted though them. When he found the one the Tamara had chosen as her wedding ring, Seto's hard eyes softened slightly before gently closing the box and slipping it into a pocket. "I'll keep this one for now; I'll need it for when we are married. Until then, wear the other ring you bought."

Only now did he look at her again, smirking when he saw how pale she looked. Straightening, he walked over to her and brushed his lips lightly against her hair in a mock-affectionate gesture. "I would hope that you will find a way make yourself beautiful before I come to collect you to seal the agreement made by our fathers' tomorrow." He said in an icy tone before he walked out, not allowing her to say anything in reply as he slammed the door behind him.


	9. False wedding, real feelings

Author's note: Thanks again to Zeo-Chan, for all of her help with this chapter. It's not as long as the last one, so hopefully it would be as messed up as the last one! Happy reading and don't forget to review!

* * *

Kaiba stared at the computer screen, his fingers flying over the keys in seconds. Ever since he left Tamara's he had holed himself up in his office, ignoring everyone. Of course, no one would dare to bother him in one of these moods. He watched as a pair of heels slowly clicked by, the light casting shadows on the walls. He glared at nothing and reached up to rub his throbbing temples. His headache had been getting worse ever since he left her apartment and no matter what he did, he couldn't make it leave.

A few hours later, Kaiba's private phone rang twice before Mokuba picked it up, fearing that his brother would start snapping off heads in his current mood. "Oh! Hey there Unicorn, I missed you!" He greeted happily, glancing at Seto's closed office door. Mokuba's lowered his voice slightly, still staring at Seto's door. He wasn't sure if Seto could hear him all the way in the other room.

Seto glanced up, listening to Mokuba softly talking on the phone. He reached over, picked up his own phone and became deathly quiet, eavesdropping.

"Hello little brother, how was your day?" Tamara asked calmly, clearly not wanting to upset Mokuba right off the bat.

"It was good. We got out of school early the other day ago and now it's a couple of free days!" he exclaimed, smiling widely and momentarily forgetting about his brother and his brother's current mood.

"That's cool. Been staying out of trouble and keeping your grades up? I know you are enjoying Art class." She laughed a little.

Mokuba laughed as well. "Yeah, I love art. I love painting too, although most of it ends up on me and not the paper." he laughed again. "But yeah, my grades are good. Seto would skin me alive if they weren't and besides, the classes are easy." he smiled widely.

"How would you like it if my brother gave you drawing lessons? I loved that picture you drew for me. Maybe if you work hard enough, Jake will show you how to keep the paint on the paper." There was a smile in her voice.

Mokuba laughed again, a bit louder. "I'd love it a lot, Unicorn! I'd really love to! Art is wonderful, and I'm sure Seto won't mind." he was smiling as well.

On the other end of the line, there was a moment of silence, then a long sigh. "Little brother, may I ask you a question and have you answer honestly?" She finally asked in a quiet serious voice.

"Of course you can!" Mokuba said in an excited voice, ignoring the serious tone.

"How many of my father's letters did you read that you weren't supposed to?" Tamara asked in a deadly serious tone of voice.

"Oh..." Mokuba's voice trailed off. He didn't want to tell her that he had read almost all of them when he wasn't supposed to. "Uh, I'm not really sure. I only read a few out of most of them I suppose." he answered, his voice betraying the truth.

There was a soft strangled sigh from the other end. "Oh Mokuba... I'm sorry... We, my brother and I, tried to protect you from my pain..."

"Its okay, Unicorn, please don't be sad. Don't worry, it'll be all right. Actually, it was my fault. I shouldn't have read those letters." Mokuba apologized quickly, trying to cheer her up somehow. "When is the next time you're going to come by before you leave for the Academy? I'm surprised you don't just let Seto teach you."

"You know that your older brother doesn't like me Monkey, and Jake wants me to go learn with other people my age, so that I won't be lonely while Jake's juggling the company controls around. Besides, your brother is a very good duelist, but I'm not letting him get a first hand look at my deck. I might end up dueling against him someday, and I don't intend to give him an easy win, though I honestly don't think that he'll waste his time on me; not while Yugi's still soundly kicking his butt every week. If it comes to that, I might just ask Yugi to duel in my stead." Although Tamara laughed at the last bit, you could almost hear the wheels turning in her mind as she considered this idea seriously.

Mokuba sighed. "Tamara, he's really not that bad. Honest, he'd never hurt you, at least, not on purpose! He's been sulking in his office since he left you." His voice was coaxing and encouraging. "My brother's just not good with girls at all..." Then he smiled, even though he knew she couldn't see it. "In fact, I'll bet he's busy in his office right shoving as much work as he can on his underlings just so he'll be able to spend more time with you."

Kaiba snorted quietly when he heard his brother say that. Of course it was true. He'd rather be holed up in an office than out on dates with girls who were only after him for his money. But Tamara was different; she didn't want anything from him. He picked up a pen and nibbled on the cap of it. He curled his hand around the coffee cup and brought the cold coffee to his lips. His blood burned and he knew that his cheeks red. He did want to spend time with her but he was sure after what he did earlier she wouldn't want to be seen with him. He put the cup down and tapped the pocket where her ring sat. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. The metal seemed to burn through the fabric, reminding him what he had done to her.

Tamara sighed. "Little brother, thanks for trying. Still, I don't think that I'm his type. Besides, I would rather focus on my studies and my writing right now," She hummed softly to herself for a minute. "Tell you what, I'll spend and entire day with you this weekend before I leave, just you and me. A little sibling's only day, no older brothers allowed. What do you think about that idea little Monkey?" There was a false brightness in her voice that suggested that she was trying to cheer them both up.

As Tamara had hoped, Mokuba laughed in delight. "That sounds great! I'll make sure that Seto doesn't pout in his jealousy. He might get greedy and decide not to share such a pretty girl!"

Seto licked his lips, rolling his eyes at the comments exchanged between the two. Seto sighed and put the phone back into its cradle. He'd make amends with her sometime, but not right now. He put on his glasses and pushed them up all the way on the bridge of his nose. He went back to working, ignoring the two.

Clearly feeling much better now, Tamara laughed warmly. "Somehow I doubt that. I fully suspect that both our brothers will be more than glad to have us otherwise occupied while they snarl and snap at each other like older brothers do. Anyways, I've got to go, Yugi and Joey will to be coming over to help me figure out the dungeon dice and duel monsters games, I'm also going to have Yugi take a look at my Dueling Academy laptop, it's being a pain in the butt." She laughed again. "Thanks for cheering me up little brother."

Mokuba laughed again. "You're welcome, Unicorn. I'm glad you cheered up. Have fun with Yugi and them." He said goodbye before hanging up. He glanced towards Seto's closed door. "I know you were listening big brother," He called out, rolling his eyes and letting out a breath.

The next morning, Tamara dressed carefully and joined her brother for breakfast, though she mostly picked at her food.

Meanwhile, Mokuba woke up late and in a very foul mood. "Seto! I need a ride!"

Seto woke up as he heard his name being hollered. He rolled over and slowly blinked open his eyes. "Why, of all days, today?" he grumbled, rolling over again and putting his feet on the floor.

"I woke up late. Sorry! I think I broke my alarm clock again." He was dressed neatly in his uniform and was trying to deal with his hair. Knocking on his brother's door, he entered the room. "What are you going to do today?"

Seto rolled his eyes and stood up, stretching. "I don't know yet," He said through the door, rummaging through his closet and choosing the first shirt he found.

"Jake sounded really tense when I talked to him last night. Did you three have a fight?"

Kaiba's hands shook and he shrugged on the shirt. "No," he snapped, shaking his head.

He sighed. "Never mind, just hurry up, I'm gonna be late." Mokuba replied and left the room.

"Fine, fine," Kaiba snapped grabbing a pair of tan slacks and slid into them. His brother was being awfully bossy this morning and it was pissing him off for some reason.

A record-breaking ten minutes later, Mokuba hugged his brother and bolted inside. "Have a good day brother! Let me know if you're going to be staying overnight at the company again." He shouted over his shoulder before he disappeared.

The door closed and Kaiba was left in silence. He patted the bundle in his pocket and he closed his eyes. Wearily, he let out a deep breath and opened his eyes again. Today, for some reason, wasn't going to be a good one.

In their apartment, Tamara played with her food nervously as her brother continued to rant and rave in his rage. She knew better than to interrupt him when Jake was in this state.

Kaiba had driven over to their apartment, glaring the whole time. He knew that Jake would be pissed and it made it even madder. He gripped the steering wheel and put the car in park. Today, well yesterday, was his last day of being single and he hated the thought.

Jake was still lecturing his twin even as he put his dishes in the sink. Hearing the doorbell ring, Jake left the room to answering it. When he saw Seto Kaiba standing there, his emerald eyes went icy even as he stepped back to allow the other man inside. "Good morning Mr. Kaiba." He said in a quiet but cold voice.

"Good morning Mr. Fear," he said, his own gaze just as chilly as the other. He could make out Tamara's form in the background. "Is she ready?" he asked, looking the other way and down the hallway.

Tamara had turned herself in the dining room chair before she slipped her arms into her crutches to stand up. "Good morning Mr. Kaiba." She answered in an emotionless voice. The redhead was dressed in a long white skirt and a white suit jacket over a dark ruby shirt. Her red-gold hair had been twisted into a thick crown that had been wound around her head except for two locks that framed either side of her face. "I trust that my appearance pleases you today more than it did yesterday." Her face was completely expressionless in addition to the bland tone in her voice.

He nodded his head. "Yes, it's much better today." His gaze barely flickered in her direction; instead it remained steady with Jake's. "Well, are you ready to go then?" he asked, patting the pocket where the ring rested against his chest.

Her twin had followed Kaiba into the kitchen. Seeing the barely touched cold food in his sister's plate, his temper was scraped away a little more. "Are you finished eating? You've barely touched your breakfast at all." He snapped as he strode over to her.

"Yes brother, I'm not very hungry. Thank you for staying for breakfast." Seeing the anger flare in her brother's eyes, she bowed her head and left the room, dragging her feet slightly as she limped along down the hall without further speech. It seemed as though she walked in a jerky fashion, as though she couldn't quite make her legs move on her own without great effort.

Jake silently watched her leave the room, seemingly too angry to speak, even as mingled pride and pain shone in the depths of his eyes. When she had disappeared from sight, he shook his head and picked up her plate to dump the food into the garbage can before putting her plate into the sink.

Kaiba cocked an eyebrow at Jake, a frown creasing lines onto his face and around his jaw. "Why didn't you help her?" he asked, glaring at her brother. He stepped forward to go after Tamara, the fight between them forgotten for a moment.

"She has her pride too." Jake replied sounding as though he was speaking though clenched teeth. "If she wants my help, she'll ask for it." He turned on the water to rinse the dishes. "Until she asks me, I stay out of her way, and she does the same for me."

Meanwhile, Tamara had made it down the hallway and had finally gotten her door open. She was grateful that Kaiba hadn't seemed to have paid her any attention, and commented on her awkwardly swinging rear end. "Merciful Goddess this really hurts…" The girl hissed softly to herself from between clenched teeth as she made her way toward her desk where she had parked wheelchair.

"Yeah, it looks like you're in pain," He said, poking his head around the corner and he had the feeling he startled her.

The redhead yelped and had to make a grab for her desk to avoid from falling on the floor. "Yikes! Don't do that! I have a hard enough time staying on my feet without getting scared out of my wits!" She exclaimed, biting back a painful cry. Her face felt hot, and she knew that she was blushing darkly.

He chuckled. "Sorry, I had a feeling I'd scare you." He scurried to her side and bent down, set on helping her stand up.

Grinding her teeth, she forced her shaking legs to support her weight again. Once she felt secure, Tamara turned and made her way to her wheelchair before turning around to finally take a seat. Pushing herself up properly into her seat, she swung her footplates back into place and sighed in relief.

He gazed at her with a sad expression, as he watched her force herself to stand and move on her own, rejecting his help in absolute stubborn silence. She was so small and pale compared to him, so delicate while he was the dangerous beast in this territory.

She kept her eyes closed as she carefully got her breath back. "Wow, I need to start working out again or something; this shouldn't tire me out this fast." She murmured as she buckled her seatbelt into place and checked herself out in the mirror to make sure she still looked okay. Her legs began to spasm up and down, but she ignored them calmly.

"Why haven't you been working on it lately?" He asked, trying to sound concerned, but not too concerned. Kaiba mentally rolled his eyes at himself, knowing that sounded so lame. He wanted to help her, but he knew that they were both too proud to even suggest the idea, and he didn't want to intrude or otherwise be rude to her by asking that personal question. In his mind he already knew the answer to the question. He sighed and used his left hand to rub at his throbbing temples before moving to her side. The comparison in heights was extraordinary between the two; her 4'11 and his massive 6'1 towering over her. He licked his lips and put a hand on the handle bars.

"I've been busy trying to help my brother. Though I use the crutches whenever I'm in the apartment or otherwise alone. I used to be able to use a walker too, but lately my balance hasn't been right, and I don't feel like kissing the floor." She answered, taking his ring from the box that had been sitting on her desk and putting it in her suit pocket above her heart as she spoke. Tamara pressed down hard on her knees to make them stop from shaking before she turned the power on. "Well, I think I'm set, let me just get my last instructions from my brother, and then we can go."

Kaiba nodded, trying to understand. Maybe it was something he wouldn't understand unless it was happening to him. He watched her press on her knees and he swallowed the lump forming in the back of his throat. "Uh, what about your engagement ring?" he said, slightly confused. "And why don't you go ask your brother to go with us?" he asked as well, hoping that if he extended the invitation to her brother that Jake would like him a bit more.

"Oh! Thanks for the reminder. I'm not really used to wearing jewelry." She said, smacking her hand against her forehead before she turned her chair and opened a drawer to take out a second ring box. "I'll ask him, but I don't think he'll come. The people at FearCorp aren't making the transfer of power easy for him, and of course, I'm not allowed to accompany him..." Tactfully, Tamara did not add that her brother _really_ didn't like the idea of his little sister marrying Kaiba.

He knew she was hiding or keeping something from him but he ignored it for the moment. "Well, why is that?" he asked, stubborn and confused about what she had said. Why weren't they making the transfer easy, and why wasn't she allowed to accompany him?

"I don't have a share in the company. If something happens to Jake and he has no sons, the company will automatically go to my husband instead of directly to me." She explained blandly. "If I'm not married, it will go to one of my father's relatives." Shrugging, Tamara slipped the simple engagement ring on her right hand before changing the subject. "Is it cold outside?"

Kaiba nodded, working hard to hide the smirk that was just pushing to make itself known. He needed things to work out in order to take over FearCorp and he would have to turn things up more. He shrugged his shoulders to her question. "Dunno. It feels fine out there to me but then again, I like the cold." he glanced towards the door. "But why don't you have any shares in the company?" he was prodding but he was curious.

"Because I'm a female, and my great-grandfather couldn't stomach the thought of his daughters or grand-daughters inheriting his 'great work', so he made it legally impossible to transfer ownership to the females in the family." She explained with an angry chill in her voice as she shrugged into her letterman jacket.

Kaiba rolled his eyes and watched her shrug on the jacket. It looked strange, to see something so large on her small frame. He moved close to the back of her, his fingers absently threading themselves into her hair again. It was his favorite pastime now, playing with her hair. It made him feel in control and saner if he did that.

Tamara seemed to find this amusing, but bent forward to get his fingers out of her hair. "Don't mess up my crown." She said, but smiled slightly to take the sting out of her words. "It takes forever to fix on my own."

Amused, Kaiba laughed. "I won't touch your precious crown, princess." he leaned down and blew the last word across her earlobe, just to see how she'd react.

The redhead closed her eyes and shivered, the lines of her jaw tightening. "Let's go." She managed to say in a strangled voice.

Kaiba smirked from behind, the grin wide and stretching even wider. He now knew a weakness and he intended on using it wisely. "Oh really, I thought we could stay here a bit longer and have some fun talking?" he blew across her ear again, his lips touching it slightly.

Tamara nearly jumped out of her own skin at his touch of his lips on her ear, if her seatbelt hadn't been on; she might have gone though the ceiling. "We aren't alone you know." She said, struggling to make her voice calm even though her heart was pounding.

"Oh, I know that," he whispered, hoping to seduce her a bit more. He enjoyed her reaction and it made him itch to push it a bit farther. He trailed a finger lightly over her ear and waited.

Sucking her breath through her teeth, she tried to turn him off before she lost it. "If you want to be rid of me in a few months, don't try anything. I'm very happy being a Vestal, and I want to stay that way." She ground out, while at the same time trying to get control of her suddenly disobedient body.

Kaiba let his fingers fall farther, lightly coming to rest on the surging pulse point just behind her ear. "Oh, but what if I don't want to get rid of you after all?" he asked quietly, his voice low and almost dangerous sounding. He loved the power rush he was getting from having this kind of control over her.

"That doesn't mean I'm easy. Besides, you can have any other girl whose better appealing then me." She replied, trying to break contact by rolling her power chair forward.

He reached out, stumbling a bit and his hand landed on the wheelchair. "Oh, but I don't think of you as an 'easy' type of girl. A very stubborn young lady but not easy," he said, looking up and still trying to hang onto his charm as he stared at her.

She swallowed hard, trying to do it so he wouldn't notice, as she turned to face him. "Thank you. I think." Although she sounded calm, her eyes were huge and dilated.

Kaiba felt heat rush to his face as he gazed at the look on her face. It suddenly made him feel... Like... Oh, he couldn't even describe the thoughts that were now racing though his fevered brain!

"Tammi! I have to move, call if you have trouble today." Jake's loud call echoed sharply down the hall. "Don't bother waiting up this time, I'm going to be burning the midnight oil again, so you'll on your own for dinner."

Tamara's eyes dimmed sadly in disappointment. "Again...?" She said sadly to herself with a resigned sigh before raising her voice in answer, "Yeah okay, no problem! I'll be working on my writing anyway tonight. Love you twin!"

"I love you too honey." Jake replied, followed by the slam of the door closing.

The spell broken for the moment, Tamara closed her eyes to take a slow cleansing breath. "Well, that most certainly stinks." She muttered as she spun towards the door, intent on heading to the kitchen to make sure that she could get to food for dinner. "I _hate_ it when he does that… never mind the fact that this kitchen isn't even remotely accessible to me yet." Tamara sounded completely in control of herself again.

Kaiba cocked his head sideways, resisting the urge to snicker at her. He followed her into the kitchen and waited. "Well, that was a surprise," he mumbled, glancing towards the closed door. He felt a rush of protectiveness and annoyance when her brother said he wouldn't be coming home until late or even going to go there to be a witness.

Shaking her head, she rummaged around and put a cup of instant noodles, a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter together on the counter where she could get to them easily. "Okay... That should do it for dinner." She said to herself, Seto having been forgotten behind her.

"_That's_ your dinner?" Kaiba exclaimed, his eyes wide with shock. Damn, she ate worse than he did! He cleared his throat and looked in the other direction.

"I'm used to fending for myself, but I can't cook in this kitchen." She said with a shrug. "We can go now." She didn't seem at all upset by the simple meal on the counter. "It'll be a long walk for you unless you want to drive on ahead wait around for me." As she spoke, Tamara modestly snapped up her jacket to her chin to avoid looking at him, hoping that he wouldn't try anything else until she'd cooled down outside.

Kaiba snorted at her reply, still glaring around the kitchen. He turned his attention back to her. "I'm fine walking. I could do with some exercise anyway," he said, shrugging his shoulders.

"All right then." Tamara replied and grabbed her house key. "Let's go get this over with while we can." She said as she rolled out of the kitchen.

"All right," He said, following her out of the kitchen. He did raise an eyebrow to her strange statement but he pushed it aside, hoping things would be all right for the day.

Opening the apartment door, she waited for him to step out into the hallway before shutting and locking the apartment door before silently rolling down the corridor towards the elevator. Her face looked impassive and calm, as though the redhead was already preparing herself for the seemingly very unpleasant task that had been set before her.

He watched her, wondering what was going through her mind at the moment. He was still a little irked about her brother, but then again, her brother might not have been to keen on the idea and that was probably why he was staying away. He chewed at his bottom lip, the surge of nervousness suddenly overwhelming him.

"This wasn't what Jake wanted for me..." She said quietly, as though reading his thoughts. "We always thought that once father died, when we were finally free..." Tamara sighed and pressed the down button for the elevator, shaking her head sadly. "I wanted to go to University in order to get my degree, Jake wanted to go to Venice and attend art school."

Kaiba nodded, unsure what to really say. "What did you want to study in university?" he tried to sound honest and interested.

"I wanted to major in Creative Writing. I've even tossed the idea around of becoming a teacher as well to support myself." She said, almost absently, the elevator dinged and Tamara rolled inside it.

"Really?" he said, his fingers stroking his chin. Ideas flew through his head a mile a minute. He could talk her into going to college, but he didn't like the idea of her becoming a teacher. Maybe he could use that against her? He thought to himself slyly, trying not to smirk as he stepped into the elevator to stand beside her.

"Yes, I had even gotten all the information I wanted for attending there. I had almost convinced my brother that I'd be safe enough on my own, even though the University was in another state, but when mother died..." She shrugged sadly. "Maybe when I am finished with Duel Academy, Jake will see fit to let me move back to the States."

"Ah, but Mokuba would be sad if you went away. He's been waiting years to see you again." Kaiba hedged, hoping it might sway her mind towards staying. "Why not wait awhile longer? Maybe you might find the right university here?" he said again, his back pressing against the elevator wall.

"Perhaps you are right in this case Mr. Kaiba." She admitted slowly as she thought. "I'll try to do some digging while I'm at the Academy to see what other options I can find. Though, to be fair, your younger brother isn't fond of my attending the Academy either." She answered as she watched the numbers change, Feeling nervous, the redhead absently played with the shining loose lock of hair that framed the left side of her face as she waited.

Seto nodded. "I'm not surprised about that," he said, chuckling. His younger brother wasn't happy with his Unicorn unless she was around him a lot. He reached out, plucked the strand of hair from between her fingers and carefully tucked it back behind her ear. The elevator dinged and he motioned for her to go forward. "After you," He said, hoping to charm her with his smile.

Mildly annoyed that she'd been caught playing with her own hair, she couldn't help but smile slightly back before exiting the elevator. Tamara was grateful that although she was dressed in white, she looked more like she was attending a business meeting with her brother rather than her own wedding. After exiting the elevator, she waited for him calmly.

Seto followed her out, waiting for her to lead the way. He swallowed back the sudden jump of nerves. This was nothing more than business. Business he was ready to hurry and get it over with.

Tamara shivered as the cool air hit her face, but never said a word to Kaiba. As they went down the street, she wordlessly prayed to the goddess for both strength and forgiveness for the blasphemy that was about to take place with this fake marriage.

Seto also was praying. But as if any God would answer his selfish prayers, he thought as he gazed down at Tamara. It was strange, things turning out like this. What were their parents' intentions arranging this marriage? Some new, twisted game only those two knew the rules in? He let out a strangled, almost silent breath of air. It was times like these that he wanted to know the answers, know the whys and wherefores of the game, and how to play the rules. He shook his head, attempting to clear the cluttering thoughts. It wasn't good to space out like this.

"Damn it all." She muttered in low anger. "Just because they made their lives bitter, they had to do the same to us."

Had he spoken the last part aloud? He wondered as he gazed at her. "Yeah, damn them to hell. They must enjoy doing this…" Seto muttered, his gaze darkened with furry.

"They are, but I'm not willing to let them rule me. We'll be rid of each other soon enough."

Seto snorted, shaking his head and rolling his eyes. He was going to agree with her, but in the back of his mind, he wasgrasping at straws to come up with something to make her stay.

They continued to travel silence for an hour. When they finally got to the Justice of the Peace, Tamara took a deep breath. "Well this is it... Goddess, forgive me for this blasphemy..." She whispered to herself. Straightening her shoulders, she schooled her face into a calm mask. "Let's get this over with before one of us changes our mind."

Seto nodded in agreement. "Yes, the sooner it's over, the better," he muttered under his breath.

She drove up the ramp and opened the door for him wordlessly.

Kaiba raised his eyebrow at her. Why had she made that comment? And why in the hell was she holding the door open for him? He shook his head and trailed behind her. His nerves were calming down but his mind was screaming at him.

Shrugging, her mask never slipped as she started filling out the paperwork needed for the marriage license, giving him the pen when she was finished filling out her parts.

He narrowed his eyes at the paper and took the pen. No matter where he went, there was always paperwork to fill out. And it was rather annoying nowadays. He glanced (well, more glared) down at her and wrote in his name at his parts as well.

Tamara sighed and waited for him to finish so that the license could be processed, nervously twisting the ring that was on her other hand. Once it was done and they had the legal paper, they went before the Justice of the Peace.

Seto cleared his throat, tugging at his collar. He suddenly found it very hot in the room and he wanted out of there _now_. His eyes darted down to her ring she kept twisting on her finger. He coughed, clearing his throat. "Try not to puke when I kiss you. Things would look weird," he mumbled, looking in the other direction.

"I'm a better actress than that." She muttered back, taking his ring out of her suit pocket before pasting on a smile as the priest came into the room.

The priest greeted them, but when it came time to the vows, she spoke her own instead of repeating the words given to her. "I promise to honor, respect, and to be faithful while in this marriage." Tamara refused to lie; even to a god she didn't serve. There was no love in this union, and she knew it. There was only peace in her face, no tenderness or even affection in her gaze as she slipped the ring onto his hand.

A little surprised, the priest turned to Kaiba and waited.

Seto sighed quietly before making his vows. "I promise to honor, respect, remain faithful, and to take care of this woman in this marriage." His mind was screaming at him. '_Why bother to make those vows? She'll be gone in a couple months,_' the annoying little devil voice prodded at Seto. He slid the ring on her finger and half met her gaze. He wanted to show her, to speak his real vow to her to show her how much she was beginning to mean to him. However, he knew the feeling wasn't mutual and for once he didn't feel like bending someone to his will. He settled for letting his breath out with a silent hiss before his gaze returned to the priest. The priest's eyes were confused but he continued. Under his breath, Seto whispered, "I actually intended on keeping you longer than those three months," he glanced sideway at her.

It wasn't until Kaiba had bent down when the priest said that Seto could kiss his bride that Tamara answered, just before her lips lightly brushed his own. "I highly doubt that Seto Kaiba." The answer spoken and the chaste kiss given, she started to pull away from him.

Seto raised his eyebrow at her; he would have to teach her how to kiss. He smiled then looked towards the priest.

Tamara thanked the priest and smiled at him as she slipped her arm into Kaiba's outwardly appearing to be a happy bride as she waited for him to lead her out of the room.

The priest, believing that mask that she wore, shook Kaiba's hand and wished him great happiness with his new bride.

Kaiba shook the priest's outstretched hand before laying a hand on Tamara's shoulder and guiding her out. Once they were out of the room, he looked down at her. "I'm going to have to teach you how to kiss," he chuckled to himself. Already his mind was thinking about tonight. "So, I was thinking, to celebrate, let's go out to eat." he said, his tone serious and the underlying thought implied. "Then we'll spend some 'quality' time together back at the mansion instead of the lonely apartment." he continued on, hoping that he was making sure he was firm with what he was saying.

"I know how to kiss; I just don't like kissing in public." She said coolly. "The mansion might not be a good idea. Mokuba's going to notice the rings on our hands." Tamara answered as they started back to the Fears' apartment. "Now that we are married, do you really feel like we need to see the fakery though in private as well as public?"

Seto snorted. "Mokuba is at a friend's house for the weekend or a bit longer so that won't be a problem. As for kissing in public, you might want to get over that. Sooner or later the media will be all over this and we'll have to pose. And besides, it might be better than going back to an empty apartment." Seto pointed out, resisting the urge to twist his lips upwards in a smile.

"I'll be at the Academy next week before the media ever gets wind of this." Tamara pointed out, but shrugged anyway. "Might as well, Jake will be gone again tonight."

Amused, Seto mentally smirked. He smelled an easy victory but he didn't want to gloat just yet. "So what would you like to do tonight?" he asked, changing the subject.

"I was originally planning on fighting with that piece of junk Academy laptop that Crowler gave me." She said, her mouth tightening in suppressed anger. "I still can't get it to work, and I've had it for a week. To be honest, I'm about ready to kill the thing by throwing it into the nearest water source." By the expression on her face, while the idea itself was amusing, Tamara was being completely serious.

Seto had to laugh at this. He knew someone who could fix the computer (along with himself) but he wasn't about to tell her that. Actually, he was grinning because he told Crowler to give her that piece of crap computer in the first place. He snickered at her and said, "I could have someone look at it for you if you'd like." he was trying to still be nice. Something that was hard for him to do. He licked his suddenly dry lips and waited for her answer.

"Please! I even asked Yugi to take a crack at it while he dropped by last night, but he was just as stumped as I was. I had to take the hammer away from him before I was tempted to use it myself!" She said, looking grateful as she drove by his side.

He narrowed his eyes for a moment before he cracked up laughing. It was a funny picture he was getting from her story. Just the same, Seto was a little irked because Yugi had been welcomed over there. How dare the little snot!

She sighed when he laughed, and continued on in thoughtful silence. Tamara was worried about what he had said after his vows, but hoped it was an empty bluff.

Seto seemed to almost echo her thoughts. Would he make good on his promise of keeping her around? Would things be better or worse if he did? What did he really want?

When they got back to Tamara's apartment building, she pressed the button for the fourth floor, seeming to have forgotten Seto was beside her even though her wedding ring now glowed on her left hand.

Her new husband wasn't helping matters because he too had disappeared into his own world. He was aware of Tamara beside him but he didn't acknowledge her presence. His own ring glowed in the light.

A minute later, Tamara unlocked the door to her apartment and drove inside. Throwing her key on the table and unsnapped her heavy coat and took it off, lightly tossing it on the couch. "Whew, at least that's over with." She said as she relaxed. Straightening her suit jacket, she checked the answering machine. "Well, it looks like I'm on my own for the day, since Jake doesn't seem to need me at the office…" Shaking her head, she smiled to herself in amusement as she drove her chair into the kitchen to get something to drink.

Seto chuckled at this. She really had forgotten he was with her. "Planning on changing so we can go back to the mansion?" he asked, his voice echoing off the still bare walls.

Tamara jumped in her startlement at being reminded of his presence. "I'm just getting a drink. What about your car? You're going to get a ticket." She said, trying to cover her jump.

"A ticket? For what?" He raised his eyebrows at her sudden jumpiness and hid the smirk that played at his lips. He stuck his hands into the slacks and waited.

"For illegal parking." She replied filling a glass with water and drinking it slowly to steady her nerves.

Seto snorted at that. Like he couldn't bribe people to do whatever he wanted. Flash enough cash and there were always people willing to make things disappear. He waltzed over to where she was and leaned down, letting his warm breath fan across the back of her neck and ear to regain her attention.

The redhead almost choked on her water and turned her head slightly, shooting him a tear-filled but dirty look before putting the half-filled glass on the counter before she dropped it, getting her breath back. "What was that for?" Tamara finally asked when she could breathe again.

Seto snickered. He loved seeing her reactions to when he did that. "No reason," he shrugged his shoulders, still snickering.

Muttering darkly to herself, she picked up the glass again and drained it before putting it into the sink. Then she took the extra minute to put the food that was supposed to have been her dinner neatly away before leaving the kitchen and heading towards her room, firmly shutting the door behind her.

All right," Seto said, following her. His hand caught the door and he glanced back. "Is it locked?" He asked, eyebrow high (his new trade mark around her).

"If you open that door, you are going to wish had been!" She shot back, then smirking she added. "Mokuba might not agree with me, but I think you'd make a very pretty girl." As she spoke, she took off her shoes with a bit of wiggling, and she cursed in vexation when one of the prongs of her gripper snapped in the process. "Note to self, get new gripper." She muttered angrily.

For some reason, it surprised Seto to hear her curse in that manner; she just didn't seem the type to use that kind of language. Although he had laid one hand on the doorknob, Kaiba found that he was rather reluctant to put that serious sounding threat to the test. As he waited impatiently for her to come back out, his respect for this otherwise meek looking redhead went up a notch or two.

About ten to fifteen minutes later, the door opened again. Tamara was still wearing the red silk shirt that she had worn under her suit jacket, but was now wearing a pair of jet black jeans that fitted her body well. Her red-gold hair had been left in its crown, only she had pinned back the looks that had framed her face so that Seto couldn't mess with them. She was holding an ugly but well made mint green backpack in her lap with her right hand, and was holding the broken gripper loosely in her driving hand.

Seto blinked, and then rolled his eyes at her. "We'll get a new one if you'd like." he said, snickering again. His eyes finally fluttered up and down her body. He liked the black jeans she was wearing; they matched the shirt just right, although being selfish, he still wished she was wearing blue instead of red. He smiled before looking away from her.

"I'll have to write a note to Jake before I leave, this is ridiculous! This is the third gripper this month! At this rate, I'm going to have to have Jake send me a new one every week when I'm at the Academy..." She did not look to be in a good humor as she handed him her ugly mint green backpack.

"What do you have in this bag? And what is up with the color?" he wrinkled his nose in response as he glared at the bag again. Then he reached down, plucked the broken gripper from her lap and held it in his hands. "Do I even want to know?" he asked, chuckling.

"About what's in my bag or what happened to my gripper?" She asked, driving into her brother's office to write that note.

"Both," Seto said, still chuckling. He had a feeling what happened to the gripper but not was in the bag.

"I broke my gripper getting my shoes off." She picked up a pen and began to write. "I put a change of clothes, the academy laptop and the cords that go with it, a few notebooks and a few pencils and pens in my bag." Tamara tapped the pen against her lips for a minute. Her topaz blue eyes looked far away as she considered what else to write. She didn't add that she packed her notebooks in case she got bored, her brother was in and out all of the time because of his work with the company, and she didn't expect things to be any different with her new 'husband'. Now more than ever Tamara was very grateful to her beloved twin brother that she'd only need to put up with him for a few days before leaving for Duel Academy's island to attend school!

Annoyed, Seto rolled his eyes at this. He was curious why she packed her notebooks but he didn't feel like asking. He had a feeling she wouldn't tell him the real reason why. "What's with the color though?" he asked, his nose wrinkled. It was one of those what-the-hell-were-you-on-when-you-chose-this types of bag. He chuckled at his own thoughts but stopped it. He shifted the bag from his hands and glared at it. He was going to have to find a way to depose of it without her knowing.

"All my other bags, the bottom will rip out of them after a few months of use. I've had that bag for four years now, and it's survived. I don't care how it looks; it works just fine for me so I'm not beingpicky about it." She replied without looking at him, finishing the note and folding it up. "Frankly, all my heavy textbooks can fit in there, so I'm not getting rid of it while I can still use it." Putting her brother's pen back exactly where she found it, she backed up away from Jake's desk and motioned to Seto to shut the office door behind him after she left the room. Going back into the kitchen, she put the note on the table where her brother could find it when he first came into the room.

Seto rolled his eyes again and put the bag down for a moment before picking it up again. His nerves were grating on him. He wanted to get home, and very soon at that. "Let's go," he said, shutting the door behind her, following her closely. He glared down at the ugly bag again. This thing was seriously going to disappear tonight, even if he had to burn it. He held in his snort of laughter. He leaned over the couch and picked up her coat, then slid it over her slowly when she leaned forward. He was ready and he wasn't about to take no for an answer. "Ready to go now?" he asked, his warm breath flooding the skin on the back of her neck.

Tamara swallowed, but otherwise nodded as she slid her arms into the sleeves, grabbing her key. "Where's my bag? I didn't hear it go over the handlebars, and you'll need the laptop if you wanted your contact to fix it." She asked him when she saw Seto didn't have it, and that it wasn't on the back of her chair. Frowning, she looked about ready to turn back towards her bedroom to get it, seemingly not concerned about who was behind her; as Kaiba's gaze turned cold and piercing, banking the heat that had been there just seconds ago.

He smirked but it didn't reach his eyes. "Its right here," Kaiba replied, the bag was still in his hands and he mentally cursed it with all his might. 'Wonder if I could sneak a new bag in its place?' he thought, still glaring at it. "But surely you won't be need all of this for tonight?" he asked, looking to his right. 'Let's just hope she'll bite and we can leave this ugly thing behind... If things go my way she won't be like that for much longer.' He grinned to himself then hid it quickly so she wouldn't see it. 'I need to find out her favorite foods, maybe if I play my cards right, it would help to loosen her up and put her in a more relaxed mood towards me.' He thought to himself again.

She brightened when she saw that the bag still in Kaiba's hands before she frowned thoughtfully as she considered his words, not really wanting to fight with him on the first day of their 'marriage', but unwilling to give him too much ground either so she offered a compromise instead. "If you really want me to, I'll leave the laptop here so long as you don't forget your promise to have it looked at, but I still want to take my notebooks and my clothes with me. I don't trust my twin not to sneak a peek at what I'm currently working on."

Seto nodded, he had a feeling that was all he was gonna get out of Tamara so he was going to take it. He handed her the bag, waiting for her to get the laptop out of it. But he did have to chuckle at what she said about her twin. "I know you'll take your clothes. But would your twin really take a peak?" He asked his mind in the gutter as he said the last part.

"I'm not letting him get a hold on my baby novel or my poetry notebook." She replied unzipping her bag and taking out the Dueling Academy laptop and its cordage then carefully driving back to her bedroom to leave it on her desk. Tamara returned a few minutes later and zipped her bag back up before turning around so he could put the bag on the back of her wheelchair. "No one looks at my work until I'm ready for comments and suggestions."

"Oh, and that also includes me?" Seto asked, winking at her, hoping to get her to say no. He rolled his ankles and waited for her to say something again.

"That goes for everyone... which reminds me, I must find a new editor... Bother... what a chore." Grabbing her key again off the table, she sighed.

Amused at this one-sided conversation, Seto chuckled. "Maybe I could find someone for you?" he suggested, leaning down slightly to rest on her wheelchair. He glanced back at the bag. Tonight, when she was asleep, he would sneak a peak and she would never know.

"I'll consider that if I can't find someone." She replied. "Are we going to split up? Or how are we going to handle getting there?"

Seto pulled the tiny phone from his pocket. "I'll call someone," he said, then turned his attention to the phone. Turning his back, he spoke quietly into the phone then snapped it shut a moment later. "I've called in a van, it'll be here in fifteen minutes." he said, smiling.

Tamara nodded. "It has a ramp right?" She asked, motioning to the door.

"Of course," Seto said. He made sure to threaten the guy a little to remember that big detail.

The redhead couldn't help but smile and shake her head.

Well, ready to go?" Seto asked, smiling still. His mind was still racing and he wondered if she could hear his heart pounding his chest.

She nodded, and opened the door. "Let's go."


	10. Second Thought Honeymoon

Author's note: My eternal thanks to Zeo-Chan for all of her help. Sorry for the long wait everyone!

* * *

Seto was fuming by the time the van showed up. For thirty minutes they sat there, waiting for the idiot to show up with the van. When it finally slowed at the corner and came closer to him, Seto was ready to tell the guy when he dropped them off that he was fired. He stood up, paced a bit more as the guy slowly pulled the van to where they were at. "S... Sorry Sir," the guy stuttered, wringing his hands. "I couldn't find a vehicle to transport her," he gestured towards Tamara. Seto's eyes narrowed and he trained his icy glare on the guy. "If I were you," Seto started to threaten, "I'd stand around less and start doing your work more."

Tamara put a gentle but restraining hand on her new husband's arm. "Seto calm down. It's okay." She turned to the poor employee. "Please forgive him; he isn't used to how things work regarding people with special needs."

Surprised that she spoke up, Seto took a deep breath and allowed his mind to think only of his wife sitting next to him. He closed his eyes for a moment then opened them. "Well, ready to go?" he asked, turning his head to look at her.

"Yes, I am. Are you calmed down now?" She asked, cocking her head to the side in question.

Seto snorted then rolled his eyes. "Yes, I'm calm now."

The redhead looked doubtful, she allowed herself to be loaded into the van, helping the poor man figure out the straps that tied down her wheelchair with ease and kindness. She finally felt on familiar ground as she verbally guided the employee though the task at hand.

Seto's hands curled into fists but he stood there, watching. What if she ended up doing this to all of his employees before the annulment? He snorted quietly and stepped beside the man before pulling open his door.

Tamara mentally sighed and reminded herself that she wouldn't be saddled with Kaiba forever as the van got moving. Absently fingering the ruby tear on her Vestal wedding ring, she stole thoughtful glances at Kaiba from time to time, wondering just what had she gotten herself into.

Kaiba climbed in front, his mind already a million miles away. What would he tell everyone? Demand they leave, or they stay and do what he ordered them to? Naw, he did that every day... No, he needed something different. A night off for everyone would work in his favor. He smirked as he continued to plot, and absently raised his fingers to stroke an imaginary beard. Tonight was going to go great, or else. He smirked again.

The redhead and the employee chatted lightly amongst themselves, as Seto was off in his own world at the moment. After the van stopped at a light, the employee looked at Kaiba and cleared his throat slightly. "Where would you like to go Sir?" He asked wanting to be sure of his orders.

"The house," Seto said, still off in his own little world. He was still smirking but he had his face turned towards the window so they wouldn't see it in the dim light.

Her eyes widened a little, and she swallowed. '_What in the world have I done!_' She thought in a panic, knowing then that she'd driven right into a trap.

Seto was still grinning to himself as they continued along. It was going to be an interesting night. "You'll have the one and only guest room downstairs for now," he said, glancing over his shoulders.

"All right." She said, praying to the Goddess that the door had a good lock on it. "I'm assuming the bedrooms are on the second floor then?" It was a risk asking this, but it was better safe than sorry.

"Yes," Seto said. "Mokuba's game rooms are both on the first and second floor. My office is on the second floor and the other rooms are on the third floor," he rambled on.

Mentally, the girl breathed a sigh of relief. This was getting better and better. "Interesting, is your mansion stairs only access then?" She wasn't expecting any other answer.

"For now, yes." Seto replied, still gazing out the window.

Surprised, Tamara shot him a suspicious look. That didn't sound good, considering that she didn't intend to stick around for that long. "I won't be around much." She pointed out. "There's no need to spend that kind of money on me."

Seto saw the look. '_No, she's just surprised!_' He thought in haste as he shook his head. "No, no. It's no problem. Trust me if I didn't want to I wouldn't." he spoke, rolling his eyes as he looked ahead.

She nodded slowly, before she changed the subject. "What did you have in mind when we get there?" Tamara asked, unsure of how close they were to the Kaiba mansion.

Looking up, Seto saw the mansion just a bit away and bit his lip. He had no real clue on what they were going to do. He'd order them something to eat, get her room ready and that was about it. He couldn't do much else; he didn't really plan things out this time. They pulled into the drive and he kept his gaze trained out the window. He was still in his daze as she was unloaded and as he slipped into the house to take care of the loose ends.

Tamara's eyes were huge as she gazed at the large mansion that belonged to the Kaiba brothers "Merciful Goddess almighty, what have I gotten myself into?" She asked aloud, staring at the flight of steps that led to the imposing front doors.

When Seto walked in, Kaiba's housekeeper stepped forward. "Welcome home Sir."

Seto nodded, his gaze softening. The housekeeper had been there for years so she was the closet person to the family. He wouldn't know what to do if something ever happened to her. "Have one of the newer girls prepare a room for Tamara, please." he said, his tone kind as he glanced up towards the stairs.

"I already did sir. Your little brother has been bouncing off the walls since she wrote to him. He gave orders for the ground floor guest room to be ready at all times on the off chance that he could coax her into coming over. The room was freshened up just this morning." She smiled.

Feeling shocked, Seto blinked. His brother was really faster on thinking on some things than he was. He nodded his thanks to the housekeeper and smiled. He'd have to thank Mokuba when he came home.

The housekeeper pointed out the window where Seto could see that Tamara was idly talking to the employee, she looked a little nervous, if not outright intimidated. "Did you have a plan on how to bring her inside? I'd suggest the kitchen entrance."

Respecting the sound advice, Seto nodded in agreement. He really didn't have much of an idea other than that as well, to bring her inside. He should've called ahead to warn his employees.

"I feel sorry for her." The housekeeper said quietly. "The mansion is impressive enough, but in her eyes..."

Seto nodded. It was an impressive mansion, but it would be a challenge for her. He chewed on his lip, glaring towards the door. "Use the door you planned on, then tomorrow, I'll have the outside ground employees build a ramp for her," he instructed, looking over his shoulder towards the impressive stairway. He then let out a sigh and ran his hand through his hair. This was going to be a bit tougher than he anticipated.

"Should I get her? Or were you going to clear everyone out? She looks a bit jumpy." The housekeeper remarked as she watched the redhead from the window. "By the way, that is a nice ring. You worked very quickly as far as that went."

As though he didn't care, Seto shrugged, but in the back of his mind he knew that she had a point; she knew it wasn't going to work out if he was pretending. He let out a deep breath and strolled to the window. He watched as Tamara politely continued to talk to the employee, laughing at something he said. He glanced at the look on her face and suddenly he felt bad for making her wait like that. It wasn't something he wanted to do, and it made himself look really, really bad in front of her. He let out another sigh. He was suddenly glad that Yugi and his gang wasn't there to witness that. He'd never hear the end of it, especially from Joey.

Tamara laughed with Rick, the employee that had driven them there. "Thanks for keeping me company. I hope you aren't bored Rick. Where do you think Seto went anyway?" She asked, her heart flip-flopping in her chest as she stared up at the unwelcoming Kaiba mansion.

Seto shifted from the window to the door. He glanced at his reflection in the glass and frowned. Man, he was jealous for sure tonight. He shook his head then strolled out the door. "Okay, Rick, that's all for tonight. Thank you." Seto's voice was cold, clipped as he stared/halfway glared at the employee.

"Rick thanks again for staying with me. If you have the time, could you please go back to my apartment and get Mr. Kaiba's car for him. There's really no sense in leaving it there to get towed away." She asked as she nodded at Seto in greeting.

Rick nodded, and then glanced back towards Seto before hurrying away. Seto let out a breath and looked back at Tamara. "Okay, let's go get you inside." He said. "You'll be taken through the kitchen door though, if you don't mind."

"All right, I was actually afraid you were going to try carrying me up all those dang stairs." She answered, driving near him, but not next to him, as he led the way.

Seto matched his pace with hers and he managed to slip his arm around her small shoulders. He pushed open the door and led her inside, his eyes adjusting to the light. He smirked as his eyes caught the sight of a note and a lunch left out. "Would you like something to eat?" he asked, motioning towards the sandwiches and the tall glasses of what he assumed was soda. He wanted her to relax and be comfortable around him, but he had a feeling that wouldn't be happening anytime soon unless he took things slowly.

"Yes, it should be close to lunch time now. At least, I think so. I'm not wearing a watch; my brother broke it... again. Are you hungry too?" Tamara asked when feeling the heavy iron-like weight of his arm around her shoulders and wondering why he wanted that kind of contact even though there was no one around.

Seto raised his eyebrow. "Do I even want to know how he broke your watch?" he asked. He shifted his arm to give his new bride more room to move and he marveled again at how small and frail she felt.

"It fell down the sink, and the water was running." Tamara replied. "At least, that's what he told me when I caught the plumber leaving." She sighed. "I don't keep my things in the bathroom anymore if we end up sharing one."

Seto nodded, unsure what to say really. He glanced towards the clock and back to her. "Well, ready to eat?" he asked, his own stomach growling in response. He motioned for her to follow after him.

Tamara followed him quietly. "Is it always so empty here?" she asked as she moved one of the chairs out on her way.

Seto shook his head. "No, I gave them the day off so they could do their own things today." he said, pulling the chair farther away from her and moving it out of her way.

Raising her eyebrow, Tamara nodded and parked in the empty spot. "Thank you." She said politely, the ring flashed in the light when she moved her hand away from the controller.

His eyes glanced over the ring. Would she wear it when she went away? He didn't want those other guys at that place to be chasing after her like dogs following their master. He held back the growl he wanted to let out as he thought about it and he shook his head to clear it. "You're welcome," he finally muttered, settling for seething on the inside.

Ignoring his darkened mood, she picked up a sandwich and took a bite, slowly turning the bite experimentally in her mouth as she thought for a moment. "This is very good. I've never tasted this kind of cheese before." She commented once she had swallowed. "Please remind me to ask your cook what kind of cheese this is. My brother is a vegetarian, so I'm always looking for new kinds of food that we _both_ like and that we can _both_ eat."

Seto nodded. "I'll write a note for the cook and ask him." he said, picking up a sandwich as well and taking a bite. "Why is your brother a vegetarian?" he asked, curious now.

"My father liked his meat very, very red. He wanted my brother to 'be a man', and one night he forced my brother to eat a whole steak by himself. To this day, I still don't know if that steak was actually cooked or not." Tamara replied tonelessly before taking another bite.

Seto nodded again, unsure what to really say. He did feel sorry for her brother now that he heard that come from her. He swallowed and looked down at his sandwich. His own stepfather made him do some stuff that he hated but he was glad that his stepfather never did that to him.

"Jake was really young, maybe eight or nine, I think. I don't remember. It was also around this time that father learned about my brother's reading problems, which was something that mother and I had tried to hide from him." Tamara shook her head. "My disability is different from my brother's, I can't hide mine."

Seto looked up at her, his eyes meeting hers. "How could you hide that from him?" he asked, really curious now. This was the first time that she was telling him things that were personal like this and he wasn't about to screw this up.

"I helped more than mother did. Mother mostly made sure that father was doing his own thing and ignoring us. I'd read to my brother and help him with his homework; I learned how to explain things to him so that he'd remember what was said. We became a team, two halves of one whole." She suddenly smiled and put down her half-eaten sandwich. "I loved to read and do schoolwork, I actually taught myself how to read. The big thing that helped us is that I can memorize a book after only reading it once."

An amused Seto chuckled. "I cannot do that. That is the one thing I cannot do." he said. In the back of his mind he knew he probably could but he wasn't about to put in that effort. "So how does your brother do with his reading problem nowadays? Or do you still do the same thing like before?" Seto asked, unsure if he crossed the line or not.

She nodded. "I help him as much as I can. He gets the limelight and the credit, but I do all the behind the scenes work."

Interested, Seto nodded and finished off the sandwich. He liked how open she was being with him and he could listen all night for all he cared. "So why don't you get any credit?" he asked.

"It would undermine him if I was given the credit and not him. He legally owns the company, but the transfer of power between the two branches of FearCorp has proven _very_ difficult for him. The CEOs here will not respect him if they find out he's only a figurehead." She shrugged and took another bite of her sandwich.

Now he frowned. He didn't like how she was being used like that. He grabbed a soda and took a long swallow. "Why would they be mad over that?" he snorted out, glaring a bit.

"Because they can't stomach taking orders from a woman any more than you can." She grinned and finished her sandwich before backing up to get some water. Although there was soda on the table, Tamara didn't touch any of it.

Seto stared at her. "Why aren't you drinking a soda?" he asked, curious that she was drinking water.

Tamara smiled as she grabbed a bottle of juice that she'd found in the refrigerator. "I don't drink pop, it turns to acid in my stomach, and everything carbonated does that. Why, I have no idea. Jake's just grateful I can't drink when I turn twenty-one."

"Ah," Seto said, nodding his head. That must be a pain, but then again, there were people that didn't like pop and not because of that. He put down the can and stared towards the coffee maker.

"If you want coffee, go ahead Seto. It's your house after all." She smiled and held the bottle between her knees as she snagged another sandwich, making up for eating so little that morning.

Feeling disturbed, Seto nodded and got up to make a pot of coffee. He heard her say 'his' house clearly and it bothered him. He wanted her to say their house, not his house only. He stood at the counter, messing with the coffee.

Tamara watched him with a thoughtful expression on her face as she ate. She wondered what his plan was now that they were here.

Seto stared at the coffee as it slowly dripped out. His plan was turning to dust now that she was being open with him. He grabbed a cup from the cabinet and poured himself a cup with it was finished.

The redhead twisted her wedding ring on her finger. "What do you have in mind for the future once this farce of a marriage is dissolved?" She asked, mildly curious about his answer.

Seto froze with the cup midway to his mouth. What was he going to do when this was all over? Run the hell after her and make her believe that he was serious! He put the cup to his lips and took a long swallow. "Unsure," he said quietly, hoping she wouldn't hear him. "And what about you, once this is over?" he asked, curious but at the same time, he didn't want to hear her answer.

"Finish my schooling like I'd originally planned." She replied, taking a long drink of her juice. "If someone comes along then that's fine, if not, that's fine too. I'm not really looking for a relationship."

Seto nodded. He wasn't really sure what to say. He wanted her to stay and be his wife but he wasn't sure how to convince her to do so. The only thing he could do would be to sit and wait it out until he could prove that he wasn't like what everyone claimed he was like.

The rest of lunch was held in silence, with each of them lost in their own thoughts, after the meal was completed Tamara wordlessly helped him clean up without being asked.

Keeping the silence between them for the moment, Seto put the plates into the sink and took the glasses from her. He was lost into the very depths of his thoughts. But, he was also curious. He wanted to get to know her better and the only way was to start asking her more questions. He glanced over his shoulder and noted that she had silently moved to the living room while he was distracted. He cleared his throat and ambled into the other room. "So..." he started out, mentally rolling his eyes at himself, "what kind of stuff do you like?" 'Oh man, what an even lamer question.' he growled at himself as he parked himself on the sofa.

"Writing is my big thing, but I also like video games too, especially the Final Fantasy series. Believe it or not, I also love the Pokemon games, which are very big in America right now." Tamara admitted sheepishly. "I don't like Duel monsters very much."

Seto nodded. He liked his games but he didn't have the time to play them anymore. "Pokemon?" he asked, eyebrow raised. He had heard of it but he didn't think she liked the game. But he was also a little hurt hearing that she didn't like Duel monsters much. He looked to the wall and sighed a bit.

"My brother thinks I'm silly, but I love the dynamics of the Pokemon world."

Amused now, Seto had to chuckle at that. "So why is it you don't like Duel Monsters?" he asked, curious to her answer.

"I hate the Dueling disk format that you have to use, and it's hard to play if you're like me and can't use both hands." She replied as she flexed her right hand, hearing the joints pop softly.

Seto glanced sideways at her hand. 'Hmmm...' he wondered, 'I wonder if I could modify that so that could change?' he thought to himself and he sat back into the comfortable sofa. "Understandable," he said, unsure what else to say.

"It's fine if you are using a table system like the old ones designed by Pegasus, or even just on a regular tabletop like my friends and I did back home. But I liked Duke's dice idea too."

Seto nodded. "I can probably modify that for you if you'd like," he offered, glancing her way and hoping it made him sound sincere this time around. "But tell me more about Duke's dice idea," he stuck in at the end, wanting to keep her talking.

"I liked the idea of using dice instead of cards. They are much friendlier to those who can't use a deck of cards."

Seto nodded. "That sounds like a good idea, I might have to look up the dice boy and discuss it some more." Seto thought out loud, tapping his chin. "Okay, so what else do you like or even dislike?"

"I don't like water and I hate heights. Stairs are my mortal enemy, and an elevator does _not_ belong in a stairwell."

"You don't like water?" he asked, surprised. He knew that she wouldn't like stairs but the heights bit was a surprise to him as well. "Well, why don't you like heights or water?" he asked, still curious.

"I don't swim, and I have a phobia about water getting into my face. As for heights, well, if I was meant to fly then I would have been born with wings."

Seto chuckled at what she said. "That's reasonable," he chuckled again and shook his head. "Well, what else? Surely there's more," he joked, laughing this time and felt so normal doing so.

Tamara raised her eyebrow. "Are you looking for something in particular?" She asked.

Seto shook his head no. "Nope, I'm just curious, that's all. Why, does it seem like I'm fishing for something?" He asked, watching her now.

"It seems like you are beating around the bush concerning what you really want to know." She shrugged, twisting the ring on her finger.

Seto shook his head. "Nope, not at all." he said, hoping to make it seem like he wasn't. He wanted to ask about Yugi and his group but he didn't want to seem like he was prying into her private things.

She looked at him. "Am I allowed to ask any questions?"

Seto looked towards her, waiting. "Of course," he said, wondering what kind of questions she had ready for him.

"Why did you verbally attack me yesterday after my mother was buried?" Tamara asked cutting directly to the heart of the matter.

Unsurprised, Seto sighed and looked the other way. He had a feeling she would ask eventually. Taking another deep breath in, then letting it out before he turned his head and trained his eyes to stay on her. "I don't know, I guess I snapped when you mentioned my stepfather." his excuse was pitiful but he couldn't explain his actions. He looked away and mentally hit himself for being so rude, so cold to her yesterday. He couldn't even form his tongue around the apology so instead he sat there, sulking like a small child that had been told no.

Tamara bit her lower lip; chewing over the very unsatisfying answer she had been given. "I won't lie and say I wasn't hurt, because I was, very much so. You use the way your step-father treated you as an excuse to lash out at people. Did you ever stop and think that maybe he thought he had been trying to do you a favor by raising you in that way?"

Seto sighed and nodded. He had a feeling that was why his stepfather raised him this way but he didn't want to know for sure. For once he didn't want to question the actions his stepfather made or even attempt to analyze something was done this way or that way. He really couldn't think of anything to say so he settled for shrugging his shoulders.

She just sighed and shook her head sadly, glad that she wasn't living here forever.

Having trained his gaze on the wall behind her and he waited for her to ask another question. He knew he was being childish but he just couldn't help not explaining why he acted that way to her.

"Why do you hate Yugi so much?" She finally asked.

Seto sighed; he had a feeling she would eventually ask him that question but he still hadn't prepared himself for the answer. "It's simply an ego thing," he said out loud to himself but he knew that sounded stupid, so he tried the next thing that came to mind. "Because I got sick and tired of him kicking me in the ass at Duel Monsters and I have no use for his little gang, or his 'friendship' bullshit he flings out as often as he can." Seto snapped out, digging his fingers into the armrest and glared at the wall beside him.

Tamara looked surprised but nodded, keeping her thoughts to herself, reminding herself that she wouldn't be around long anyway. His answer just underscored her understanding that he wasn't her type. "Your turn." was all she said out loud.

Seto's hands balled into fists and he mentally screamed at himself. He let out a long breath between his clenched teeth and shrugged his shoulders. There was one question that kept bugging him. "Why do you dislike me so much? I do attempt to be nice you know." he said aloud, realizing his question the moment it left his lips. He groaned and smacked himself in the forehead.

Now Tamara's eyes flashed with an equally tightly leashed anger. "I dislike you because you use your past as a weakness. You use it as an excuse to hide behind and push everyone away from you. It's also your excuse whenever you lash out at people without thinking for any clear-cut, good reason oncesoever except that you felt like it. Although you attempt to be nice, it's clear that you only do so when someone has something that you want." Her answer was harsh and blunt.

Seto jumped to his feet, anger flashing in his sapphire eyes. For the first time, someone had dug out his weakness and bared it to everyone. His hands balled up even tighter and he shook his head, trying to rid himself of the flashing emotions running through his mind. "It is not just because someone has what I want." He hissed between his teeth, his eyes wide and watching her like a hawk. He took another breath and blew out, unsure what else to say.

She shrugged. "Oh really? That's how it seems to me." Tamara replied, standing her ground even as her fingers traced the ball of her joystick, ready to move away if needed. "Oh, by the way, Mokuba already told me that the door to the guest room has a lock on it, and I'm fairly certain that this chair can move faster than your feet."

Seto sighed and shook his head. Leave it up to Mokuba to tell her that. But then again, she would've found out sooner or later. "Don't leave, I'll be nice." Seto attempted, crossing his right leg over his left knee, tying to make her relax again. Then he rested his left hand on his calf and tapped his fingers.

Taking a deep breath, she relaxed a little, but she stayed where she was. "Ask another if you want."

He tapped his chin, trying to think of something to ask her about. He still wasn't convinced that she wouldn't up and roll away from him at a moment's notice. Then he sighed. "How about pet peeves? What's your favorite food?"

"Pet peeve? Well, my major one is when I've made plans with someone, but they never show up and don't even call. And my favorite food is an Italian one they serve in America called spaghetti. I also love fish and shrimp." She replied, rolling closer to him a little but still at a comfortable distance.

He chuckled, he had spaghetti a few times but it wasn't his favorite. He saw her move closer and he mentally smiled to himself. He wanted her to move closer but he would settle with her slowly moving back towards him. "Anything else?" he asked.

"I also strongly dislike it when other disabled people try to use their disability as an excuse to get other people to do things for them. It really gets on my nerves." She said this though clenched teeth.

Kaiba could understand that. He wouldn't like it either. He didn't like anyone that tried to get others do their own work. He snorted and stood up. "I'm getting something to drink. Would you like some water?" he asked politely.

"Tea please, if you have any." Tamara said politely.

He nodded and before walking into the kitchen, he asked, "Sweetened or unsweetened?" From how she acted, he had a feeling she would drink unsweetened tea.

"Unsweetened tea please, with a touch of cream or milk." She answered.

He nodded before moving slowly into the kitchen. He reached into the nearest cabinet and grabbed a couple glasses and then moved along, searching for the tea bags. Then bending down he grabbed a kettle and put water in then placed it on the stove. There was something about the Nestle tea or other kinds of teas that he disliked and he was picky about what he drank. Waiting for the water to heat up, he got out his coffee mix and started making more. The few minutes he spent in the kitchen might give her enough time to calm down a bit more and have her move closer. He gave a small grin to himself and finished the drinks.

Meanwhile, Tamara gave herself a swift mental kick. _'Get ahold of yourself girl! Show some backbone for Goddess' sake. He's not interested in you. The only reason he's asking you these things in so that he can play the part of the loving husband if the need ever arises. It's not like he's going to remember you or what you tell him after this is all over with!_' She scolded herself as she straightened her slender shoulders and resolutely parked her chair next to the couch before turning off the power.

Seto came back into the room, carrying two steaming mugs. He could faintly make out her moving around and he nearly smiled in surprise and happiness when he saw she parked herself next to the couch. He handed her one of the cups before sitting down in the middle of the couch, not wanting to scare her into again. "Ah, since we have our drinks, what would you like to do?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. I've been trying to refamiliarize myself with Japan and its culture again, but America has definitely left its mark on me. You could say that you married an American woman instead of the proper Japanese one you were expecting."

He chuckled at this. "I'm sure it left its mark on you. I've never really gone out of the country but I eventually plan on going," he said, thinking for a moment. "And what about you're writing style? Has that changed being in America?"

The redhead smiled and nodded. "Absolutely my writing style has changed. America is a _completely_ different world than Japan. So consequently my writing is geared more toward the American audience than the Japanese one at this point in time. I think that once my mind readjusts, that may change, but I think that I might end up dividing my time between the two styles until I figure out a way to combine them. For now, I post my stuff online for the experience and the feedback, but I'm hoping to get published at some point." She blew on her tea a little to help it cool before asking a question of her own. "Where would you like to travel?"

Seto shrugged his shoulders, unsure. "America, France, or maybe even Italy?" he thought out loud, thinking. He'd always thought going to Europe was an awesome idea and he felt that he should visit soon.

A smile flickered across her lips. "Nice." She commented. "Your turn again."

He sighed and thought once more. "Does your brother hate me?" he chuckled to himself after asking.

"I don't know. I do know that he respects you as far as corporate-wise, but you did make a rather cold first impression when we arrived here. He really doesn't like the idea of my marrying you for any length of time."

He nodded; he had a feeling that was the case. "Anything I can do to make it better?" he asked, hoping that there was something he could to do chance the other twin's opinion of him.

Tamara sighed and shook her head. "That, I don't know. You would have to ask my brother, but considering that our 'marriage' is only temporary, it shouldn't matter that much to him..."

Hours later after a rather relaxed dinner, the redhead yawned as she changed into the faded peach and white striped pajamas that she'd brought with her. She left the main light off but flipped on the lamp at the side of the bed before also tossing a notebook and a pencil onto the pillow before transferring into the large bed herself. Pushing her copper frames up her nose, she rolled over onto her stomach and flipped the long braid over her shoulder before opening her notebook. Her bare feet swung quietly in the air as she wrote. Seeing as the marriage wasn't to be consummated, Tamara wasn't afraid of being interrupted by Seto Kaiba.

Seto was also getting ready for bed, pulling on a pair of blue silk pajamas. Tugging on the long bottoms and shifting the shirt onto his shoulders, he stared towards his door. He buttoned his shirt halfway before deciding to sneak downstairs to 'check' up on Tamara.

From a crack in the doorway, Seto could see that she was hard at work writing in her notebook, every few minutes tapping her pencil against her lips in thoughtful silence. She looked nothing like a bride waiting for her new husband. Tamara looked like a young child in that large bed.

He grinned evilly to himself. She really was a child in some things as he watched her write some more. He wanted to show her it wasn't all completely for show anymore and that he was ready to give her anything and everything she needed.

Finally she yawned shut the notebook and put it onto the nightstand. Getting her night-brace out of her ugly backpack, she managed to get it on after a few moments of concentration. "Good. It's getting easier."

He shifted his feet and watched her a bit more. It seemed weird for him to be acting like this but he couldn't help it. He shook his head and just stood there. Would he risk sneaking in and being busted? Or would he just go back upstairs...? A couple deep breaths and he took the latter choice. Better not risk it for the night. Truth be told, Seto admitted to himself that he just wasn't ready for the step that would legally make them man and wife for the rest of their lives.

Looking around one last time, Tamara smiled and took off her glasses. "Perfect. I might grow to like Kaiba at some point, but I have no intention at all of obeying father by remaining married to the one he chose. Besides, he'll only forget me anyway when I'm at the Academy." She said as she turned off the light and rolled over.

Seto's head jerked up as he overheard that last comment from her. Then he sighed, he wanted her to like him and stay married to him. Oh well, he'd do everything in his power fair or foul to convince her to stay with him. At this point, Seto Kaiba was not about to let the heart and soul of his rival company to just walk away from all of this at the three month mark, not after everything he had learned today! Tamara could turn out to be very useful once he took over FearCorp.

She shifted in the bed, and then quietly fell asleep. Even in her sleep, the redhead's back was towards Seto, distancing herself from him.

He sighed and shut the door quietly, his heart heavy. Why did she make him feel this way? Why was he to be tortured like this? He took another breath and slowly made his way up the stairs.

In the morning, Tamara stretched and woke up slowly, hoping she hadn't slept in too late as she rolled aside to sit up. Wiping the sleep grit from her sleepy eyes, she muttered something to herself before reaching for her glasses. Her braid was more than a little messed up from the night before and she had to impatiently brush the loose hair away from her face before she put her glasses on. She took her right hand out of the brace and flexed it gingerly as she put the brace on the bedside table in place of her glasses.

The sunlight streamed through the small cracks in Seto's curtains, falling over his face and highlighting his features. He squinted and mumbled in his sleep. Then he rolled over, swatted around his face and groaned quietly. Sitting up on his elbow he looked at the clock before flopping back on the pillow. He had the notion to stay in bed but he remembered that Tamara was downstairs.

She yawned heavily and got back into her wheelchair. Rummaging in her bag, she got out clean clothing and went into the bathroom. Fifteen minutes later, she came back into the bedroom. When Seto knocked on the door, she smiled. "Come in." Tamara was dressed in faded blue jeans and a matching jean shirt. She was brushing out the tangles in her long red hair. "Good morning Seto, or is it closer to afternoon?"

Seto shrugged his shoulders. "Its morning to me," he chuckled, stretching some more and rubbing sleep from his eyes still. He watched her a bit, noticing her faded blue jeans and shirt. Something he would've never done, even if he wasn't going into work. A moment later he noticed that she really wasn't paying much attention to him and he frowned.

The redhead flinched as she carefully worked out a particularly knotted tangle. "Ouch! I'm going to be so glad to get my hair cut before I leave. My brother's just gonna have to live with it." She muttered to herself before looking at Seto in the mirror. "What are your plans for the day? Is there any time you need me to leave?" She asked.

"Leave?" he asked, confused and still half asleep. Her words weren't making any sense in his mind. He shook his head and suddenly needed some coffee to wake himself up. "What do you mean 'leave'?" he asked, his voice rough.

"Well, if you have to go to work, then there's no sense in my staying here and getting in everyone else's way." Tamara answered patiently, biting back a smart reply. She finished with brushing her hair and put the rest of her things back into her bag before finally facing him. The redhead had left her red-gold locks hanging in loose waves down around her shoulders and the back of her wheelchair.

He realized and frowned more. "Okay, go home then. I'll send one of the guys to drive you home." he waved his hand a moment before turning his back to her. He was a little irked knowing that she wanted to go home and not stay here with him. He marched from the room, his eyes steely and hard with anger.

She sighed and shook her head. "Well Tamara Alexandra McFay, you knew it wasn't going to last." She said aloud as she hoisted her bag back onto her lap and headed back towards the kitchen. The redhead had barely gotten to the kitchen door when her cell phone rang. "Yes... uh-oh... that's _not_ good... Jake you know I hate it when... yes, yes, I'm on my way back now." She choked suddenly at something her brother said. "Of _course_ I didn't...! Yeah, you'd better apologize, you should know better than that! All right, meet me at the apartment to help fix my hair. You _owe_ me for this twin..." Tamara said goodbye and shut the phone with an angry snap, her lips in a tight line.

Seto's hands balled into fists and he glowered at her as he stood in the doorway. "I'll send a guy soon," he said lowly, his eyes narrowed as he watched her again before turning his back, once again, on her. He was pissed off about how she answered and her reaction to both questions, whatever her brother had said and asked. "I bet you are happy knowing this won't last long," he said just loud enough as the door swung shut and she could hear him as he walked into the living room.

"You weren't interested either. My brother was only looking out for me, though I'm still going to blister his ears!" She fumed back sharply, leaving the kitchen to wait outside and calm down.

"Like hell!" Seto shouted, turning on his heel. "It's bull crap that you don't believe me! You haven't really given me much of a chance!" his whole body shook with anger as he followed after her. Staring down her turned back, he shook his head. "Sometimes I wonder if it was worth it, playing the fake marriage. But sometimes I wish you would just believe me." Seto gave another sigh and he stormed away from her, cursing and muttering under his breath.

"Bull shit. You've only known me for two days, and the first day you met me was when you said exactly what you thought of me." She snarled to herself, and left as soon as the van arrived to take her home.

He stormed into his office, slamming the door shut with as much force as he could. Balling his hands into tight fists, he stormed over to the desk, hitting the top of the cherry wood and digging his fingers into the polished wood. The stupid ring, her attitude, he growled and shook his head. He knew he should've put up more of a fight. _'That's it, I'm through with being nice._' he thought sourly, his eyes narrowed and dangerous. He shook his head and hit the table again. This time anything was fair and he was going to have to make things right, to make sure he got the company and more.


	11. Red Tape and a lunch date

Author's note: Thank you for waiting so long for this chapter, and special thanks to Zeo-Chan for putting up with me. Due to recent developments (please see my profile for details), I'm afraid that that next few chapters might be slow in getting out. I'll do my best to get them out quickly, but at this time I can't make any promises. Again I'm truely sorry for the inconvenience and I hope that you will all keep your faith in me during this trying time. Thank you and please enjoy the chapter.

* * *

Later on in the week, an early morning meeting was arranged between KaibaCorp and FearCorp. Both of the twins looked professional, Jake being dressed in a well fitting grey suit, while his sister was dressed in a rich brown suit jacket and matching modest long skirt. Tamara stayed with her brother, content to stay in the background. 

Seto's gaze flickered over her, noting instantly that she wasn't wearing her wedding ring. He frowned and glared towards her direction. He had a feeling she wouldn't move too far from her brother. He let out a growl under his breath and turned his attention back to the others.

The younger redhead murmured something to her elder brother, and they both turned to greet Seto politely, acting as though they had never met before. "Hello Mr. Kaiba." They said, bowing politely. "Do you happen to know what will be brought up at the meeting?" Jake asked.

He snorted to himself as he measured the twins. "Possible merging," he replied, waving his head to dismiss the two. He muttered to himself, thinking out loud. "And the marriage annulled," he said quietly, his eyes catching Tamara's for a moment.

Jake frowned slightly, lost in thought as he considered this unexpected development. Tamara however, nodded. "By Christmas, New Year's at the latest." She agreed. "It depends on when I come back from the Academy."

Her brother touched her shoulder lightly. "I'll be back twin; don't take too long, the meeting will start in a few minutes." He said calmly before walking away to speak to one of their CEOs without waiting for her answer.

Seto barely glanced in Jake's direction as he talked to one of the CEOs. He did, however, track her every movement. Then he heaved a sigh and pushed his chair back, ignoring any looks he got. He moved towards her side slowly before stopping. "You know, I would treat you better," he said quietly, gazing down at her for a moment.

The redhead looked surprised. "What do you mean by that?" She asked, trying to keep her voice calm and level.

He sighed and shook his head. "Don't worry about it then," he muttered, turning on his heel and showing her his back. He slapped his palms against his thighs and turned his attention to the others.

Tamara looked troubled as she rolled away to rejoin her brother. This earned Seto a dark look from Jake.

Jake had the look returned. Seto's own dark glare outmatched the twin brother's and he hoped the twin would back down. "Uh-oh," one of the CEOs muttered, glancing between the two guys. The others looked up a bit before resuming their talks.

Although Jake said nothing to Seto Kaiba, when the meeting started, the staring contest ended. However, Jake pointedly pulled out the chair next to his own for his treasured twin. This action of affection earned Jake disgusted looks from his CEOs. Still, Jake made sure that she was comfortable before taking his own seat.

Seto raised his eyes for a moment, his own gaze hard and cold. He wanted to show her twin that he was better for Tamara than Jake was; to prove to her protective older brother that _he_ was going to control both companies and love her as well. Kaiba let out a breath before raising his eyes to the people in the room.

For her part, aside from the worried glances that the girl occasionally shot to her brother, Tamara seemed to be ignoring the fight between Seto Kaiba and her older brother. As she had her head bowed at the current moment to arrange her writing materials to her satisfaction, Seto could see that his reluctant wife's thick red-gold hair had been arranged in a modest professional coil that covered the back of her neck, a simple silver clasp kept it there. Between the hairstyle, copper-framed glasses, and the chocolate brown suit she was wearing, Tamara looked more like a secretary or a clerk rather than her brother's equal and behind-the-scenes CEO of FearCorp.

"Mr. Kaiba would you like to begin, seeing as you were the one who originally requested this meeting?" One of Jake's CEOs asked politely. In this case, this CEO was acting as a mediator between the two corporate leaders.

For an answer, Seto gave his famous I'm-annoyed-now snort and rolled his eyes to himself. He glanced at Tamara once in a while for the next couple of minutes, before actually speaking. "The companies of course," he stated, being vague. His mind was a million miles away. He didn't like how she was dressed today; like a secretary that didn't know what she was doing. It made her look different and he didn't like that look.

Jake jumped in now. "Once our two companies are merged, if indeed that is a possibility, my sister would then be set free of the prior arrangement. I am of agreement to this, for KaibaCorp has abilities at its disposal that FearCorp currently does not."

Seto glared even more now. "No, she is my wife." he all but growled out. Everyone glanced in his direction. "If you'd like, I'd offer you both positions at the company if it's money you're worried about."

Tamara looked at Seto Kaiba for the first time since the meeting started, tension making her body rigid in every pore. Her lips tightened, but Jake spoke before she could. "I've made arrangements money-wise, for her anyway." He said curtly.

Feeling annoyed, Seto blew out a breath to steady his temper. "The offer is extended to the two of you, not just her." he said, his gaze dark. "But yes, I am thinking about merging," he continued on, ready to change the subject.

Although the girl nodded very slightly, Jake looked unimpressed by this. Finally, Tamara spoke up quietly. "Why? What do you have to gain by this merger?" She asked, her pencil having fallen still on the paper.

Seto sighed because he couldn't really answer her real question. So, ignoring her quiet question, he started straight into the many reasons why the merger would be good. But he did keep watching her off and on during the couple hours they were talking. He didn't like how her brother was acting and how she was acting as well. It pissed him off to no end and he felt that she knew better than that.

Finally, at a discreet nudge from his twin, Jake suggested that they take a break for lunch and to clear their heads. Some of the CEOs from Kaiba's side as well as Jake's smirked at this.

Seto stood up as well, his gaze blank and ignoring the CEOs and Jake. He was frustrated and annoyed with them. "Tamara," he said softly, "I would like to talk to you. Privately," he added when he glanced Jake's way.

Jake opened his mouth to protest, but Tamara laid a gentle hand on his arm and he fell silent. She pulled away from the table and followed him out of the room. The others followed, but scattered.

Seto glared a couple of times to make sure that any people who might have been following them left them alone. Once alone, he whirled around on his heel and stared down at her, shifting his weight so he could tower over her. "Why?" he asked, his mask slipping slightly to let her see a small side of him that he had forgotten existed.

Tamara cocked her head at him, looking confused as she pushed her glasses further up her small nose. "Why what, Mr. Kaiba?"

He let out a frustrated, forced breath out between clenched teeth. "Why? Why have you gone back to call to calling me Mr. Kaiba? Why have you been so shy? I want to make things right and I have no damned idea how to." His face hardened and the mask slipped back into place.

"I was under the impression that you understood that our private lives are treated differently than our public lives. When we are in the presence of our respective companies I call you 'Mr. Kaiba' because it is common knowledge among them, or so I thought, that our marriage is only a legal formality." She replied calmly.

Seto let out a breath. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately when she was around. It was frustrating. "I know," trying to resist the urge to hiss at her. He didn't like how she was treating the marriage and he didn't like not being taken seriously.

Tamara sighed quietly. "How did this get so complicated so damn fast? We've only known each other two days, if that..." She asked aloud.

He nodded in agreement. Maybe, if he listened hard enough, he could hear his inner voice telling him that he did love her, back when he was younger and was just told to ignore those feelings. Maybe, in the back of his mind, he wanted to love someone and have it returned. He did have Mokuba but, it wasn't what he wanted. But what did he want?

She blew out a breath. "Jake's not gonna like this... he's not going to like this at all..."

Why's that?" he asked harshly, watching her intently.

"He doesn't like you." Tamara said bluntly. "You didn't make a nice first impression, remember?"

"I know, I know." he said in a frustrated tone. His dislike, and anger, colored his tone and he wanted to show her brother that he could and would change.

The redhead sighed again and looked away, she looked lost and unhappy. "Why does everything have to be so messy?"

He nodded in agreement. Everything was complicated and for once, he wanted things to be easy, not hard.

"Why do you seem so angry at me? You kept looking at me during the meeting, was my bra strap showing?" She asked finally, turning her face away from him in embarrassment as her cheeks began to turn pink.

"Why?" he repeated. Surely it was noticeable as to why he was angry. He took one look at her before shaking his head. "No, your strap wasn't showing," he said, his voice low and flat.

The redhead drove to the window, looking out of it as though the view outside held all of her answers. "I don't understand this... at all. This is a business marriage, nothing more than a legal fiction, we didn't want this. We aren't compatible, and you already have a girlfriend, or at least someone you like."

Seto frowned, legal fiction? He took three large steps to her before leaning down to her level. "Legal fiction? You belong to me, but I want to show you how much you are beginning to mean to me." he said, before dropping a light brotherly kiss upon her forehead. He wanted to really kiss her but he didn't want to frighten her away like he had been doing lately. He straightened and laid a hand on her shoulders, being gentle and conscientious about his actions.

Tamara swallowed and shook her head hard, seeming stunned by his chaste kiss. "I don't understand you." She said quietly. "You agreed that you weren't interested in marriage, at least, not with me. What about your girlfriend at the office?"

"And I don't understand you either," Seto whispered quietly, gazing down at her with a seemingly sad, but loving expression in his eyes. "I was hoping by doing that that you would be a little jealous but I saw it didn't work. She's not my girlfriend, not even close." He spoke softly, almost pleading to her.

Now the redhead looked surprised as she raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Why would I have been jealous? I didn't know you, and I thought you really didn't care about anything except for keeping your company. As far as I was concerned, you could do whatever you wanted so long as this 'marriage' remained as low key as the three of us had originally planned it. It wasn't like it was public knowledge that we were attached to each other. To be completely honest, I'm not ready to be married, let alone be in a relationship." She shrugged her tiny shoulders, the velvet fabric of her suit caressing his hand. "There are a lot of things that I still have to learn about myself, and that goes for Jake as well..."

Seto sighed; he wasn't really sure why she should have been jealous. Was it because he wanted to rub it in her face? His little voice did nod a couple of small nods but nothing else. "And when will you be ready for a relationship?" he asked, curious and slightly upset and hurt that she felt like mocking this to a point. "And what do you want to learn about yourself?" he asked, curious again.

Tamara sighed and shook her head. "I don't know. I might never be ready for all I know." This was the truth. "I want to learn where I belong, what my gifts are, and how to use them. I love my twin, but I need to do this on my own and without anyone hovering over me..."

Seto nodded, he could understand that. "But why not learn with me? If you find you don't like something, then couldn't we change-" his gaze jerked upwards when he spotted her twin nearby. "Never mind," he said gruffly, straightening up more and taking his hand away.

Jake had a frown on his face as he entered the room. "Hon, pill time."

Tamara made a face and pouted, but she nodded, following her twin out of the room and into the men's bathroom.

Pill time?" he asked himself, glancing towards the bathroom. Wait a minute… he did a double take towards the doors. 'Men's bathroom?!'

After a few minutes they both came back out again. Jake handed her some Yen, and she sped off towards the vending machines. Tamara wouldn't meet anyone's eye particularly those of her husband.

Seto waited until she was around the corner before casually moving to Jake's side. "What was that if you don't mind me asking?"

The redheaded brother looked at Seto. "She had to go to the bathroom too." There was a tight note in his voice. Jake didn't want to embarrass his little sister, and he was more than ready to punch Kaiba's lights out if the other decided to make a scene.

Seto nodded, as understanding as he could be. He figured that she would tell him a bit more on some things she needed to have done. He made a mental note and cleared his throat, unsure of what else to say.

Jake's face was expressionless. "My sister mentioned that you were going to have her Dueling Academy laptop looked at." He said calmly.

"Ah yes," he said, thinking back. "I had it sent out, I believe, a few days ago." he couldn't really of much else to say. He stuffed his hand into his pocket and turned away from Jake, his stony features falling back in place.

"Will it be back before she leaves, or will it be sent to her directly?" The question was asked casually, almost as though Jake didn't care about the answer.

He thought for a moment. "I'll deliver it to her when it's finished," he said, making an impulsive decision. He smirked to himself and sighed to himself. He was bored with this meeting and he wanted it over with.

Tamara came over. "They are ready brother." She said quietly, finishing the last of her snack and handed him the change.

Her brother nodded and took the empty wrapper as well as the change from her. "Okay Tammy, let's go finish this off." He replied as they both headed back towards the conference room.

He glowered at their backs. He watched her hand the change over and the clinks just adding to his mounting anger. How long was this going to go on? Would he be tortured by her like this or would he just try to stop falling for her? 'By God, I'm growing obsessed,' he thought sourly as his hands balled into fists.

As the meeting reconvened, the mood heated up even more as the wrestling began again regarding the powers that Seto would have. That was when Jake dropped the bombshell. "Mr. Kaiba has no rights to FearCorp as a boss. This marriage is nothing more than a way to keep our respective companies. It isn't a real marriage, just a legal formality."

The younger redhead's face was calm and expressionless. Her brother had revealed nothing that she didn't already know, so she merely made a note on her pad.

Seto could almost feel himself foaming at the mouth. He was ready to reach across that table and strangle the damned Jake if he didn't stop. His fists curled even tighter and he let out a strangled breath through clenched teeth. He wanted to scream at them that he didn't want it to be just a fake marriage; that he was ready and willing to wait for her to make up her mind. To do anything, say anything, to make her stay with him.

Another hour of pointless bickering went by, and both twins looked tired when the meeting finally was called to a halt for the day. Jake was pulled to one side by his CEOs while Tamara packed her and Jake's things.

Seto also stood up, gathering his things into a small, neat pile before him. He had to admit he was curious about what was going on but he knew better than to pry at that exact moment. He slowly shifted his feet until he was close to Tamara, glancing down as she shoved the last items into the bag.

"Sis?" Jake called quietly, striding over to her from behind. "Can you make it back on your own back to the apartment? I need to head back to the office again." He said, ignoring Kaiba completely.

Tamara didn't answer right away, looking thoughtful. "I... think so. It might take a while though. Brother, would you hold it against me if I said that Japan is a nice place to visit, but I really don't like the idea of living here long term? It was a lot easier to get around back home in America..." She sighed softly. "I really need to relearn how to use my walker, or better yet, my crutches. Granted, that's not exactly my favorite way of doing things, but I don't think that we'll have a choice. Looks like I'm going to spend a lot of time in detention at the Academy..." For a long moment, the younger redhead looked lost in thought before she shook herself out of whatever path that her mind had traveled down. "Don't worry about me Twin; I'll be okay on my own. I take it that you won't be home for dinner tonight?"

Jake shook his head regretfully. "Sorry honey, it looks like I'll be burning the midnight oil yet again. Don't bother waiting up for me; you need your sleep too sweetheart." As he spoke, he took the heavy bag and hung it on the back of her chair. "Don't forget to eat tonight; you've had a bad habit of doing that lately when you are busy with other things." When Tamara tilted her head back in order to look at her brother, Jake bent over, tenderly kissing her forehead from behind and ignoring the looks gained by this odd public display of affection. "Don't worry, things will calm down, Seto Kaiba is just testing us that's all. He just wants to see how far he can push us before one of us has a meltdown. I love you Twin." He said by way of goodbye before rejoining his CEOs.

Seto had backed away during their conversation. He was curious why she wasn't eating at all. He opened his mouth to reprimand her but he snapped it shut again. He didn't want to step into this just yet. He just barely heard the last part and he was a little upset but he didn't really mind. He understood why they were wary of him. "Would you like me to drop her off something to eat?" Seto asked Jake, looking over his shoulder towards the other twin. "I could get her something and if she liked, she could go back to the mansion and eat there and I'll take her home after a while." He was trying his best to be polite but his patience was thin from the meeting.

Jake raised his eyebrow and looked at his twin, who was shrugging into her letterman's jacket. "What do you think sis, the ball is in your court." He asked her.

"I might as well brother, I think the heater has gone out at the apartment and they never did say when they were going to fix it. Mokuba really wants me to go to the mansion anyhow." She shrugged. "Since I'm not staying overnight, this shouldn't be a problem."

The elder Kaiba brother nodded. "If your heaters are out, then maybe you could use an electric heater or space heater in there?" Now he was concerned, he didn't like the idea of her being in an un-heated apartment like that.

Tamara shrugged. "I'll be fine. It just means that I'll put on more clothes, that's all." She answered, watching her brother leave. "Did you bring the van, or are we walking?"

"That still won't help," he said. "I _insist_ you at least stay the night until the heaters are fixed." he was firm and hoped that they would agree. He didn't want her coming down sick. And who knows, maybe something would happen, although he did doubt it.

The redhead sighed but decided not to argue with him while in public. "All right, but I'll need to head to the apartment first to change my clothes. Jake'll kill me if I ruin my clerical suit. The apartment isn't bad during the day, but the night's going to get very cold." Snapping up her jacket, she followed Seto out of the room.

He resisted the urge to put his arm around her, ignoring any looks they got. "Why doesn't your apartment have any heat?" he asked, curious why the landlord would allow such a thing.

"Their boiler is finicky, or at least that's what I was told. It happens every once in a while." She shrugged. "At least I know where all of the side-routes in the area are now, but it'll still take me about two hours to get back to the apartment. Jake hasn't gotten around to getting me my own van yet."

"Well, would you like a ride?" he asked, not liking the idea of her taking two hours to get back to the apartment. And, he did manage a glance over his shoulder at the other twin, who had disappeared around the corner. Her older brother was always leaving her by herself, and he didn't like it. He, if she would accept him, wouldn't leave her by herself. He wanted her opinions and anything else she wanted and had to offer.

"If you happen to have the van with you, I'd be grateful for it." She said with a smile. "If you don't, it's not a big deal." The dimples flashed in her cheeks, as though teasing him, there was nothing coy or seductive about her manner. It was clear that she was trying to keep a 'friendly' distance between them by not acting like his wife.

He had let out a sigh then. What would it take to make her comfortable around him and be more trusting? What could he do, or say to her?

She sighed softly. "You know... you didn't have to offer us that job... you could probably run FearCorp better than we ever could despite everything we've put into it, and I think that galls him a bit, even though he won't admit it."

"It's okay," he replied, finally realizing they were nearing the elevator. He pushed the down button and stood waiting. He twisted his neck slightly sideways, flinching when it cracked loudly. "Ouch," he said, reaching up and rubbing the tender spot.

Tamara smiled. "You get used to it." She said, referring to the cracking.

He chuckled. "I know, but it still hurts every time,"

"Hm, that's a good point. I'm so used to the creaking and cracking of my body, I hardly notice unless my joints pop; now _that_ hurts."

He chuckled again at that. "And, if you pop your knuckles when it's dead silent, it's even funnier." he smiled at that imagine.

The redhead sighed, and when the door dinged, followed him out of the elevator. "Where are we going?" She asked.

"I thought you would like to go eat lunch." he suggested, hoping that his own stomach wasn't going to rumble its agreement.

"Lunch sounds really good right about now, that snack was a long time ago." Tamara agreed. "Any place in mind?"

He hummed to himself for a moment. "Wherever you would like to go," he said after a moment. He felt that it was her choice and he was willing to go anywhere.

"Let's go back to the apartment. I'm embarrassed to say this, but I haven't yet re-mastered the chopsticks and I wouldn't like to embarrass you in public Seto." She admitted as a blush flooded her cheeks. "I'll admit, I cheat when I'm alone."

He laughed. "It's okay. How about we order out something then instead?" He suggested, still chuckling.

She nodded. "That'll work. I'll even let you surprise me, because I haven't really figured out Japanese food yet. I don't like spicy food though."

"Ah, there is a nice Italian place we can order from. I've eaten there once and the food was good." he suggested, smiling.

Tamara's face brightened and her eyes lit up in happiness. "Really? Cool. That would do nicely then. Thank you. I'll have to write down the address for Jake later since I won't be here after next week to watch over him..."

Seto nodded and pulled out his cell phone. Flipping the tiny thing open, he typed out a quick text to his van driver, telling him to bring the van for her.

The redhead hummed softly to herself. "I still can't believe I'll be gone on Monday... this week is going by faster than I would have liked..." She said, more to make conversation than anything else.

"Monday?" Seto was confused. Was it really that soon? He counted off the days… yes, it was. He frowned to himself and shook his head. "That's so soon," he said, "Are you nervous about it?"

"Very." She nodded. "I've never even seen the school, Jake took care of everything once I had taken the exam and had gotten in. He swears that once I finish here, he'll send me wherever I want to go."

"You've never seen the school?" he asked, giving her a curious look.

"No, that's one of the reasons I need my Academy laptop back. Dr. Crowler told me that I would need to make sure all my info was correct and that I had gotten into the classes I signed up for. He wasn't very nice about it though, he said that I had gotten the lowest exam score on record, and that I had better change my Slifer slacker ways." She shrugged it off.

"Stupid, idiotic bird brained person," he muttered, shaking his head and rolling his eyes.

"I've been called worse by better people." Tamara said, thinking he was mad. "It doesn't matter to me what he thinks, I'll just be a little mouse and keep out of the way."

Seto shook his head. "You shouldn't be," he ground out, angry as hell about what was said to her. His hands balled up tightly but he knew he had to restrain his anger and quickly.

"Trust me Seto, I'll be fine, I'm used to staying out of other people's way." She smiled. "You'd be surprised how much you can learn when people don't notice you, and I'm very good at that."

He shook his head. "I wish you would let me teach you." he said softly, looking in the other direction.

"You aren't a good teacher Seto, you don't have the patience for it, and I'm a slow learner at best."

Knowing she was right, he sighed. "I know, I know," then he chuckled. He knew he would be frustrated but he wanted to teach her regardless.

Tamara gave him an odd look, trying to figure him out. "Even if I accepted your offer, it's too late to back out now. Jake says that everything is all set up." She frowned. "I still want to go to Wisconsin though. Hopefully if I manage to get good grades, Jake will agree to at least let me take summer courses to satisfy my writing itch."

"Why Wisconsin, and not some place in Japan?" He asked, curious why she would still choose some place that far away. "And why will Jake agree to let you take only a summer class?" he cocked his head sideways, waiting for her answer.

"That's still the best school that has the best writing as well as teaching programs that is best suited for people with disabilities. I've wanted to attend there since tenth grade. Now that we are stuck here in Japan again, Jake wants me to study dueling first though. He's hinted that if I tough it out and get good grades during the year at the Academy, he'll pay for me to take online courses while I'm here during the summer break." She was scanning the streets for the van that Seto had called.

"And that's wrong," he stated, shifting his feet. "for him to manipulate you like that. Why shouldn't you be allowed to go to the college if you want to? Why do you have to get good grades at the Academy in order to do online courses for the summer? That's a load of crap if you want my opinion." he huffed out the last bit and rolled his eyes. A moment later the van pulled before them from the throng of traffic.

For an answer, the redhead shrugged. "Maybe so, maybe no." She said as she waited for the ramp to come down when Rick had jumped out. "Still, my brother has his reasons for doing things. At least when this 'marriage' is annulled, I'll be close by so this can be taken care of quickly as possible." When she was loaded in the van, she again guided Rick though the process of tying down her wheelchair.

"Hmph," Seto let out, giving a funny stare at the back of her head. What would it take to make her see? What could he do? He was still answerless as he climbed into the passenger seat and slammed the door shut.

"Where to Sir?" Rick asked when he climbed into the driver's seat again.

"Go to the Italian place so we can grab something to eat." Seto said, looking out the window and went into ignore mode.

Tamara smiled at Rick's inquiring look and shook her head. When they got there, Tamara spoke to Seto. "Did you want me to wait here while you ordered?"

"It's up to you," Seto said, giving a small yawn. Bored and growing crankier by the minute, he was ready to go home.

She smiled at Seto. "I did say you could surprise me." Tamara reminded him.

"Hmmm, true." he said, thinking and stroking his chin for the affect. "Well, then I'll order for everyone then. Mokuba loves this and I'm sure Jake wouldn't mind having something to eat as well." he wanted to try to be nice to her brother. He opened the door and dropped his feet to the concrete.

The redhead nodded and waited in the van. She was already thinking about the things that were on her list of 'things to do'. Tamara didn't think that it was a good idea to be around Kaiba as his moods kept shifting around. One minute he was cold and somewhat reasonable, the next it seemed almost as though he really believed that he was a semi-loving husband... Shaking her head, Tamara tried to clear her thoughts.

Seto too, was thinking of his list as he entered the Italian place. Warm smells enveloped him and he took a deep breath. '_Why can't she see I'm trying? What is wrong with trying? It's better than doing nothing at all..._' He stepped up to the counter and ordered the first things that he saw, not really paying attention very much. "Snails sir?" the boy asked. Seto gave a grimace and started shaking his head. The boy chuckled and wrote down the rest of the order. "It'll be ready in about fifteen to twenty minutes, depending on how busy it gets."

Rick slipped in the store to use the bathroom, nodding to Kaiba as though to say that Tamara was okay before heading into the men's room.

The boy handed Seto the cartons and he slid the money across the counter. "Keep the change," he said, noticing that there was a little over fifteen left in change. He gave the boy a sincere smile and strolled past the other customers. He looked through the glass windows and smiled to himself when he could barely make out Tamara's form in the back. The door clicked open and he slipped out, balancing the food on his right arm. Unlatching the door, he swung himself into the seat and glanced over the back. "I hope there's enough for everyone. I even have some for Jake so you can take home for him. That is, if Mokuba doesn't find it first." he chuckled.

"Thank you for your thoughtfulness, Jake might claim that I don't eat unless I am reminded, but the truth is that he's the one I learned that from." Tamara's dimples flashed briefly as Rick was seen hurrying back to the van and silently slid into the driver's seat again. "Where to now Mr. Kaiba?" He asked.

"You're welcome," he said, tucking the boxes next to his seat on the floor. He let out a quiet breath; she really should eat more instead of following her brother's habit. "Home I suppose, unless there was somewhere else you'd like to stop at?" he hinted, shifting his body to get comfortable.

"I need to go back to the apartment and change my clothes if you don't mind." She said politely, smiling at Seto directly for the first time.

He nodded and directed Rick to her apartment. "Anywhere else after this?" he asked, looking over his shoulder.

"We can go to the mansion after that if you wanted. Will we have lunch at the apartment, or wait until later?" She asked, cocking her head to one side inquiringly at him.

Seto nodded and they pulled up to the curb at her apartment. "Don't be too long okay," he teased, smiling again. "Oh, why don't we go have lunch at the park? It is a nice day," he suggested, pointing out the sunny day.

Tamara blushed and ducked her head. "I'll try. Sure you don't want to come up?" She asked shyly.

Oh man, oh man, oh man, this was his opportunity! He could almost smirk but he left it as a small smile playing on the corners of his lips. "Of course," he said, keeping his voice level and as steady as he could. He stepped down and waited as Rick helped her as well.

She nodded at Rick as he untied her chair and lowered her from the ramp. When she was off, she told Rick that they would be back soon and politely led Seto inside towards the elevator.

Seto followed behind her by a few steps. He did smirk now that she had her back to him. He wanted to seduce, to make her understand what he wanted. But how? Oh, how indeed?

Pressing the button for the elevator, she pulled out the key that hung from a silver chain that she habitually wore around her neck and ducked her head slightly to take it off. "It's a good thing I didn't forget my key, Jake was in such a rush this morning, I almost did." She said once they reached the door.

Seto grinned his little trademark smirk and waited until they reached the Twins' apartment. She leaned forward and he watched as she stuck the key into the lock. Then he leaned down as well, capturing the key between his long fingers and brushing against her shoulder in the process.

The redhead froze, and almost stopped breathing for a minute, before she turned the key. Leaving the key in the lock, she twisted the doorknob and pushed open the door for him.

"After you," he said, bowing down and his cheeks flamed from her reaction. If he'd bothered to remember that she was so sensitive to touch, he would've tried a few tricks before. Sliding his hand across the handle as she moved forward, he cast a glance behind him. Screw the lunch and Rick standing outside downstairs. He wanted to possess, to kiss, to love her in every way but how to make her respond to what he, and she, wanted?

Numbly, Tamara entered the room, not noticing his blush. Instead, she made her way to her room. "Grab the key will you please?" She called back over her shoulder. "I didn't want to forget it." Opening her door, she swore softly to herself. "Crap... _now_ I remember what I was supposed to do today." She muttered softly to herself as she gazed upon the chaos of Slifer red uniforms, clothing, and books that was scattered around her modest bedroom.

He mumbled and grabbed the key from the door where it had stuck in the lock. He moved softly, quietly towards her room. When he heard her mutter and swear, he grinned to himself. "Everything ok?" he asked, poking his head around the corner.

"No, I was just reminded exactly how big of mess I made in my room trying to pack." She replied, turning her head as though to look at him.

"All right," he replied, rolling his eyes. Sometimes he wondered if she would ever admit she needed some help. "Are you ready?" he called from the next room.

"Hold on, I'll be out in a few minutes." Then the bedroom door shut, leaving him in silence.

He resisted the urge to growl. He paced slowly, wondering why she closed her door on him.

She hummed quietly, and smiled to herself as she changed her clothes. When she came back out, she was dressed in a dark green turtleneck with golden-brown jeans. Slightly worn brown slip on shoes graced her small feet, while her hair was in a loose ponytail. The ugly backpack was on her lap and packed full. "Sorry I kept you waiting." Tamara said, shifting her grip and making the ruby teardrop on her otherwise plain wedding band flash slightly.

He glared at the damned bag. Was she going to flaunt it in front of him? "Get a new bag or I'll buy you a damned new one." he growled out, glaring at the stupid thing.

"As I've said before, it may be ugly, but it's strong enough to hold everything I put into it." She said calmly, ignoring his glare as she put the bag down and turned her chair so that he could hang the bag on the back of it.

"Grrrr..." Seto rapped out, resisting the urge to bend down, spill everything on the floor and destroy the bag once and for all. "I can, I could, find you a new bag that will hold everything you put into it." he suggested sweetly, his gaze torn between watching her and glaring a death glare at the bag.

"Thank you. Perhaps you will have better luck than I did." She replied just as sweetly, wondering what he wanted as she waited, but not willing to let her fake husband pick a fight with her.

He rolled his eyes at her back and bent down to pick up the bag. "I'll go find one sometime soon," he said happily.

Now it was her turn to roll her eyes. "All right, but I'm still not sure why you are bothering. I leave for the Academy on Sunday." Tamara answered, now impatient for lunch despite the company she'd be eating it with. Still, she was glad he hadn't tried anything yet. With luck, he was finally eager for her to be gone so that they could go back to their separate lives.

"Well, if I find one after you leave, then I'll bring it by." he said, shrugging the bag onto his shoulders. "Now, let's go have our picnic. I dunno about you but I'm hungry." he chuckled.

Hearing Seto slide the backpack on his own shoulders, she raised her eyebrow but said nothing as she grabbed the key from the sidetable where he had placed it.

He let out a quiet sigh as he followed behind her, took the key from the redhead, and locked the door before he handed her the key back. His stomach gave a small rumble and he sheepishly shook his head and chuckled.

Tamara smiled back, pleased that he no longer seemed to have his mind in the gutter. "Did you have anywhere in mind for our semi-late picnic lunch?" She asked.

"Uh... Park, park, park," he suggested, thinking about the different places around town. He cocked his head sideways and thought harder. He thought about many places they could go (the bedroom) but he knew that she wouldn't like his suggestions. He chuckled and strolled ahead a bit. "Where would you like to eat?" he asked slyly, his mind still halfway in the gutter. He licked his lips and thought evilly to himself, _'Say you don't wanna eat... You wanna eat me._' he resisted the urge to laugh out loud and he quickly turned his back to her so he wouldn't do that. "Other than that, I have no idea where to actually eat." he said loudly, glancing over his shoulder. '_Dammit, got to stop acting like a damned boy in love._' he thought harshly to himself a moment later, shaking his head slightly.

Smiling, she shook her head. "Maybe we could ask the driver for suggestions." She offered. "I'd like to see more of Japan, I don't remember much."

"That'd be a wonderful idea!" he said, smiling widely as he turned around to face her and to walk backwards a couple of steps. He reached for his phone and dialed the driver and spoke quickly. Then he snapped it shut. "Do we bring Mokuba along?" he asked, smiling again.

"No, I think he said he was hanging out at a friend's house. You can call and ask him if you'd like Seto." She said, pressing the button for the elevator.

He nodded and thought hard. Would he call his brother up? He knew that Mokuba would enjoy the day with the two of them, but how would he get the kid to give them some private time? He leaned against the wall and let out a breath.

The elevator dinged and the door opened. Tamara drove inside, holding the door for Seto. Although it crossed her mind to let him be squished for not paying attention, she decided to be nice if only for Mokuba's sake.

He followed her inside and stood beside her and pressed the ground floor button. It was silent, tense inside the elevator and he didn't like it one bit. He shifted and leaned over her. "Tammy," he said softly, glancing down at her.

Uneasy, the redhead tilted her head back to look at him, wishing that he wasn't so close. "Yes? What's with the nickname?" She asked, not quite liking the look in his eyes that made her pray for the elevator's ding.

He swooped low and pecked her very lightly on her lips. "I like the nickname," he whispered softly as he pulled away from her and straightened his back.

Tamara looked surprised and stunned at his answer. A part of her screamed that his interest in her was absolutely stupid as she waited for the ding.

He shifted uncomfortably and glanced sideways at her. He noted that she had a flushed look on her face and he resisted the urge to chuckle and smirk at her reaction. But he couldn't help but wonder if that was the first time anyone did that to her.

When the elevator finally dinged, Tamara exited quickly, heading toward the doors that led outside. She resisted the impulse to look at him, not wanting him to see exactly how unsettled both Seto's light peck as well as his surprising comment had made her. The redhead managed to keep her face calm and somewhat expressionless to avoid being questioned by Rick as she was loaded into the van.

Once she was loaded up and strapped down, Rick drove them to one of the larger and more beautiful places in Japan. However, Tamara was silent during the drive, lost in her thoughts while at the same time trying to ignore Seto's piercing eyes as he gazed as her in the rearview mirror. To distract herself, she concentrated on the wonderful smells coming from the take-out container that was at Seto's feet.

He kept shooting glances back at her through the mirror. He knew he upset her by the looks and how she was acting but he didn't think he would upset her that much. He let out a breath and his shoulders hunched slightly, giving the illusion of a silent defeat. '_For God's sake it was just a kiss!_' he screamed in his head as he looked at her again for what felt like the millionth time in a row. He nudged the container at his feet and glared at it, wishing it would burst into flame and die so he wouldn't go homicidal on something else.

The park that Rick had chosen was beautiful if you loved nature. Tamara's face seemed to soften at once at the sight, not knowing that she was giving away her romantic side. When she was unloaded, she couldn't stop looking around in wonder. "Amazing... Goddess of the Earth, how majestic you are in your beauty..." Tamara's voice was hushed as though she was uttering a prayer.

Even he had to admit it was a beautiful park. He had managed to check out that softer side and he wanted to see it more often. He licked his lips and grabbed the container of food from the floor. He barely heard her faint whisper but it hit him in his heart. Would she whisper something that sweet if she could believe he wanted her with every fiber of his being? Would she feel the same if he gave her the chance? He mentally groaned and stood behind her, waiting. It was breathtaking here and he was happy that his driver had chosen this place to come to.

Tamara now turned her head to look at Rick. "Thank you very much for bringing us here. If you haven't eaten yet, you can take a lunch break now if you'd like, we'll be here for a while so you don't have to wait around if you don't want to." Then she smiled at Seto. "Ready to explore?"

Seto nodded, glancing at her. She was treating his employees like people, instead of items. "Be back in two hours," he told Rick as the driver hurried off. He felt he ought to be graceful and grant the guy some time so she wouldn't have a fit. He nodded to her question and followed after her, keeping his pace with her.

His redheaded wife drove at a normal pace, looking around her in wonder. "I forgot how beautiful Japan can be... It's times like this when I can almost hate population." She said quietly, not wanting to talk loudly in a place like this.

He nearly beat his head in when they came closer to the nearest tree. He hated humanity and the population at times and everyone knew it. He wrapped his fingers tighter around the container and sped up just a bit. "Why are you talking so softly?" He asked his voice loud and disturbing for a moment.

With the mood broken, Tamara shot him a dirty look. "Never mind." She said coolly, all softness gone from her face. "Let's find somewhere to eat, I'm hungry now.

Kaiba could've growled right then and there. He had a feeling he seriously messed up, but how? Why? He reached up and ran his fingers nervously through his hair with one hand, glaring at random objects, hoping he could destroy something within arm's length.

After a few more minutes, the redhead pointed to a blooming cherry blossom tree. "How about there?" She asked, she liked the openness of the area. Seto wouldn't be able to pull anything in a place that public.

He shrugged to agree to her spot. He didn't really like it one bit but he knew she would protest if he suggested somewhere else to go eat. He followed her to the tree and attempted to sit down with the food. Handing her the container a moment later, he dropped to the ground, his legs sticking out in both directions. "All right, ready to eat?" He asked, rubbing his stomach and attempting to stay nice now.

For an answer, Tamara laughed and opened her container. "Hmm... it still smells good, even cool." She said, picking up her fork and taking a bite. Some sauce hung on her lower lip, and she wiped it away with the side of her fork before cutting another bite of her lasagna. "It tastes wonderful."

He nodded and bit into his own food, staring off into the distance over her shoulder. Man, he sure did screw up but he wasn't about to let her know that, otherwise she might gloat that she was right and he was wrong. He couldn't stand that idea. He took another swallow of his food.

She hummed quietly as she ate. It was a tune that he didn't know at all. If Seto had dropped off the planet, the redhead wouldn't have noticed in the least. As far as she was concerned, she was eating alone and thoroughly enjoying the scenery around her.

Kaiba dug into his own food and watched her every so often. He could sense she was mad at him and he knew he probably deserved it. Swallowing the last bite of his food, he stood up and dusted off his slacks.

A few minutes later, Tamara finished her meal as well. "That was very good. I'll throw the garbage away for you Mr. Kaiba." She said calmly to Kaiba, taking the empty container from him before driving off to find a garbage can.

Back to calling him 'Mr. Kaiba', he thought unhappily as he watched her roll away from him. His hand curled into a tight fist and he shook his head. Sometimes he hated how quickly she slipped back into her shell and rolled away from him when she didn't like where things were going. He sighed and shook his head, still angry with himself.

When she returned, she had a slight smile on her face and a cherry blossom in her braid. "Full?" she asked him politely, the fragile closeness gone between them. If Tamara noticed Seto's anger, the girl either ignored it, or simply didn't care.

He shrugged his shoulders and turned his back to her to try his hardest to start ignoring her. He saw the blossom in her braid and he frowned, biting his lower lip in frustration. Why was it that this woman was able to do this to him?

Shaking her head, she drove slightly ahead of him, not speaking. Unseen, the soft tender expression was back on her face as she soaked up the quiet beauty of the park. "If I ever get a real boyfriend..." She murmured to herself.

"Real boyfriend?" He echoed as eyebrow rose at that comment. What the hell did she think he was? He shook his arms to get rid of the jitters. Gnawing on his bottom lip, he watched her back. He hated how she treated his affections as nothing and he wanted to, more than anything, to do something that would really prove that it wasn't a joke or a ruse for the fake marriage.

"Well, this isn't exactly a love match." She replied calmly. "I'm sure you'll find someone more compatible once I've left for the Academy. Speaking of which... have you heard anything about my Academy laptop yet? It's cutting it kind of fine... I want to make sure that I get into the classes that my brother and I decided on..."

"Yeah, your laptop should be back today." he said, not really paying attention now. Her comment was starting to really dig underneath his skin and he didn't like it very much. "But what makes you think I'll find someone once you leave?" he asked, eyebrow raised and tapping his fingers on his right knee.

"Whew, thank you, I wasn't looking forward to fighting with Dr. Crowler about my classes." She smiled happily. "Considering that you are Japan's number one most eligible bachelor, it wouldn't be hard for you to find someone that would be a credit to you." Tamara raised a fiery eyebrow of her own. "Even I know that much Seto."

"Bullshit," he mumbled, shaking his head. He may be Japan's, or hell the world's, most eligible bachelor, but it didn't mean he liked it. Most of the people that wanted to 'go out' with him were only after his money and usually he turned them away in a heartbeat, no matter what those sweet talking women would say to him. "It's a lot harder to find that person, especially since so many are gold diggers." '_But not you_', he wanted to add but he kept his mouth shut. He licked his lips and waited for her answer.

"If getting the good things in life were easy, then we wouldn't value them as much. The good things in life have to be worth fighting for; otherwise you won't know them for what they are when they cross your path. You might have to date a lot of ducks before you find the swan of your dreams." The redhead replied, seeing the garbage can and throwing away the empty containers. She smiled. "You've got to start somewhere, or you'll never get anywhere."

He snorted, regarding her look. He knew she was right, but what if he already knew what he wanted, and she was sitting in front of him telling him otherwise? She was worth fighting for, even if she didn't think so. "I'm already fighting for someone," he said quietly, stuffing his hands into his pockets and looking the other direction. He wondered if she heard him at all.

"You didn't find me, I was thrown at you." Tamara corrected him. As she spoke, she pulled her braid over her shoulder and stroked it. "You want someone who can back you up in a duel and in your company. I can't do that, and I know it."

He took a deep breath. So what if she was 'thrown' at him? Did it really matter? He watched her pull her braid over her shoulder. "I know you can back me up in my company and I'll help you if you're so concerned with duels. I know you can do it. You shouldn't be so damned stubborn." he shrugged his shoulders.

"Can you honestly say that you were ready for a relationship, let alone marriage? I'm not suited to be a wife Seto." She said calmly.

'_And honestly, the idea of marriage scares the living crap out of me, but I'm willing to work with it._' He thought, watching her. A sudden though flashed into his mind and he seized it quickly. He took that stride forward that separated them and grabbed her shoulders before spinning himself in front of her. "It doesn't matter if I'm ready or not. I'm willing to make things work out. And you're damned well suited to be my wife, regardless of what you think!"

Her slender shoulders felt fragile beneath Seto's hands. "And if I'm not willing?" The redhead challenged Kaiba, fire in her light blue eyes. As she spoke, she was trying to escape from his hold on her. Tamara was throwing down the gauntlet, tired of trying to dance around his ego. In truth, Tamara wanted nothing more than her freedom to do as she pleased.

He shook his head, suddenly feeling as though he'd do anything for her to change her mind. Climb the mountains; stab himself in the heart, whatever she wanted him to do. He could tell she was about to give up and he could see her throwing the flag around, but he didn't want that.

Instead the elder Kaiba brother leaned in close and did the very thing that had been haunting him for nights. He kissed her. At first Kaiba was gentle, yielding to her tender mouth. But several seconds of gentle and nice flew out the door. He gripped her shoulders a bit more, molding his lips against hers and lapped at her bottom lip. He pulled back quickly, licking his own lips and struggled to name what she suddenly tasted like. He glanced at her slightly red lips and smirked to himself.

She looked as though she'd been hit in the back of her head with a board, Tamara blinked and shook her head as though to clear it, licking her lips as she tried to gather her scattered thoughts. The redhead opened her mouth as though to say something, but nothing would come out. Her world had been shaken to its core when Kaiba had kissed her, and for once in the proud girl's mind failed her. For the first time, she had no idea what to do now. The young woman blinked again and just looked at the man who was claming to be her husband helplessly.

He watched her mouth move and he was just as speechless as her at the moment. He suddenly had the feeling that was the first time she'd ever been kissed like that, and he liked the joy of it. He leaned down and clasped her hand. Feeling her fragile cold hand slightly tremble in his own, his smirk widened before turning so that he was standing at her side and tucked her arm protectively in his own so that he remained close to her and prevented any attempt to flee. For some reason, his fragile wife made him feel as though he was almost a knight, a bit a dark one, protecting his sheltered lady from harm. But soon his headstrong wife would leave his protection.

It made him want to snarl when he thought about all those young pups trying to gain her attention and favor. He already knew from their encounter with Duke that she was too polite, and _far_ too innocent to send them away. When Seto looked at her left hand, he was reminded that she wasn't wearing her wedding ring and frowning in disapproval. Seto made a mental note that that too would have to change. Suddenly bored and looking at his watch, his lips twitched. "It's time to go Tamara." He said in an icy calm voice.

"Yes Seto." She answered, her lips feeling cold and stiff. The redhead still wasn't sure exactly what had happened. Tamara was still trying to figure out how in the world she was going to shake him loose when the van pulled up and her so-called husband released her so that she could get into the van. Although the drive to the Kaiba mansion took place in absolute silence, she still felt Seto's piercing dark blue eyes burning into her from his gazing into the rearview mirror.

This was gonna be a long night…


End file.
